BAWC transfers capacity to match demand

SEPTEMBER 1 saw the launch by British Airways World Cargo of an additional Hong Kong freighter service, increasing its frequency from seven to eight services a week. This new service is the latest in a number of commitments the carrier has recently made to Asia Pacific, starting with the introduction of the first direct UK freighter service to Shanghai last September. Introduced in response to customer demand, the new eastbound Hong Kong service will route via Frankfurt and Dubai. On the return leg, the service will fly via Delhi, increasing the airline's freighter frequency via Delhi to six a week and reflecting the airline’s commitment to the expanding Indian market. As a result of the additional Hong Kong service and the changing pattern of demand for freighter uplift, BAWC has reduced its Johannesburg rotation from two to one service a week, which now routes direct to Vitoria. It no longer serves Lusaka on its freighter schedule. “We will continue to provide in excess of 450 tonnes of capacity a week on the Johannesburg and Cape Town routes through a mixture of freighter and line flights,” senior vice president commercial, Keith Packer, said. “This capacity will increase to more than 550 tonnes later this year with the addition of five new line flights to Cape Town as part of the winter 2005/06 schedule,” he said. BA spokesperson for South Africa, Stephen Forbes, told internet news service TNN that after aggressively campaigning for more South Africa routes over the past few years, the carrier was now turning to India. “We feel we have missed a great opportunity. We had the aircraft, the opportunities were booming and South Africa refused to allow us more frequencies.” Forbes said now that India had opened up its skies, the British carrier was adding capacity on the Indian routes instead of Africa. BOEING AND Airbus, the world’s two largest aircraft builders, booked orders for a combined total of 529 large airliners in the second quarter. This was up sharply from 161 in the previous three month period, according to industry sources.