Airlines target lucrative Cape Town freight market

Leonard Neill THREE INTERNATIONAL airlines, British Airways, KLM and Air Gabon, are targeting Cape Town as they reschedule flights to capture a bigger slice of the freight market. BA has introduced three additional direct weekly flights between the Mother City and London, effective last week. High passenger demands both north and southbound are a major issue, but the airlineÕs freight sector, British Airways World Cargo (BAWC), says it can uplift an additional 50 tons weekly on the new flights. The airlineÕs Boeing 777 series allows for a cargo load of between 15 and 20 tons a flight from Cape Town. Perishable exporters, whose peak operations fall into the summer months, are constantly demanding higher capacity from the airline. The additional flights come as a bonus for them. KLM Cargo transports an average of 60-100 tons of cargo on its Boeing 747 aircraft which call at Cape Town to and from Johannesburg on the Amsterdam route. Now, as the airline considers non-stop services into Cape Town, using B777-200ER aircraft, tonnage can be doubled, according to an airline spokesman. The perishable market, made up mainly of flowers, has grown in double-digit figures during the past five years. ÒDuring seven out of 12 months each year, our cargo sector experiences severe capacity shortages with 100% load factors out of Cape Town,Ó says Diana Comninos, KLM marketing manager Southern Africa. For the remainder of the year load factors are more than 70%. The smaller Air Gabon is also planning to introduce Cape Town flights as soon as these can be arranged, probably on a weekly basis. It is already investigating the viability of increasing its service from Libreville to Johannesburg from two to three a week. Its Boeing 747-200 which shares the SA service with its smaller B737, offers considerable cargo space. The carrier is currently negotiating with cash-strapped Air Namibia to lease one of its aircraft to supplement its fleet. It is planning to expand its network from Libreville soon to include Beirut (Lebanon), Conakry (Guinea) and Bamako (Mali), destinations which are attractive to South African exporters. Air Gabon launched long-haul services to London and Brussels at the beginning of this year.