WITH THE introduction of flat bed seats in Club World on British Airways, economy class seats have been reduced and cargo space boosted. "On the South Africa-London routes there will be 5 tonnes additional capacity available," says commercial manager Southern Africa, Salama Detlefsen. "Half of the aircraft operating this route will have this new configuration and the rest of the fleet will be re-configured by the end of the year," she told FTW this week. There will also be a seasonal introduction of a 777 aircraft on the Cape Town-London route between July and October, says Detlefsen, which will increase capacity from the 17 900kg on a 747-400 to more than 21 000kg per flight. "This fits in ideally with the investment of more than R3,5billion in our new hub, Ascentis, at Heathrow, and shows we are serious about the long-term future of cargo business. Along with this BA World CargoÕs new Perishable Handling Centre at Heathrow handled 74 000 tons of perishables in its first year," she says. "Perishables represent 60% of British Airways World Cargo exports carried from South Africa. This product mix has changed during the last two years as more support is seen from general cargo customers. Our strategy is to offer the increased capacity available on new aircraft to general customers with shipments of around 300kg, and to grow this support to mirror the year round." Allocated capacity on the Johannesburg-London route is only 40% while Cape Town to London is 55%. Now, she says, British Airways World Cargo guarantees customers space during the peak season based on support from January to September regardless of allocations or otherwise. During April this year the airline launched Payload, a loyalty scheme that rewards customers for their support. The scheme runs for a period of 12 months, expiring in March 2002. It awards customers more points for higher yielding business, which means that the further their cargo travels the richer the rewards become. Points are awarded quarterly based on average yield in the respective period.
