Brokering new business for mostly passenger-filled aircraft leaving Luanda is beginning to reap real cargo rewards for Angola’s national carrier, TAAG. With daily flights of Boeing 777s out of the country’s capital, a new cargo team has identified how lucrative it could be for the airline if empty space on outbound trips was filled through opening up new markets. Principal among one of the mostly Portugueselinked markets for Transportes
Aéreos de Angola (TAAG) is the shipping of fish to Lisbon. “It’s never been done before and is a first for South Africa,” says recently appointed cargo manager for TAAG southern Africa, Ronel Rossouw. And she has the relevant air cargo data to support her view. “We literally went to people to find out
whether there’s a market for fish in Portugal after seeing how popular fish from South Africa is in Spain.” According to Rossouw initial reaction was tentative, mainly because of outdated perceptions about Angola, its airline, rigid customs in that country, and other airfreight-related sticking points. “The fact remains that no other airline flies as regularly as we do to Lisbon, certainly not with the same size aircraft. Concerted efforts by Angolan authorities to enable trade is also significantly contributing to business expansion. Benefits aside, it took a lot of persuasion to get potential shippers to overlook past perceptions about Angola. “One client wanted to know whether we were crazy, why should he put his fish through Luanda?” But determined marketing bore fruit and the client finally relented,
giving them an initial shipment of two tonnes of fish. Despite minor growing pains, local fish destined for markets in Portugal has now spiked to 12 tonnes a week on at least two separate TAAG flights from Cape Town. Says Rossouw: “The fish is collected at 8am from the docks, arrives at cargo at around 11am where the necessary inspection is done, before the pallets are prepared and wrapped from around noon, ready to be shipped to Luanda. “The four-hour flight usually arrives there at 8pm after which the cargo flies out on the next outbound flight arriving in Lisbon the next morning. There’s no faster way to get fish from South Africa to Portugal.” TAAG’s market-broking exercise has been so successful, says Rossouw, the reluctant shipper recently visited Lisbon on a fact-finding mission to suss out logistical potential for future shipments. “We’re aiming at 14 tonnes of fish at the end of this month.”
Efforts to identify and utilise spare capacity at TAAG, adds Rossouw, have unlocked new business in southern Africa. “We looked at Windhoek and Maputo as areas where new business could be developed and even opened a new office in the Mozambican capital last year. Since then the cargo we have shipped to that country has gone up 200%. It may not make sense to ship goods from Johannesburg to Maputo via Luanda, but it’s happening. “People are beginning to see us as a new airline.” Buoyed by recent success in breaking new ground for TAAG, Rossouw says they’re looking further beyond the airline’s horizons. One of these mooted deals, Rossouw says, includes a long-considered plan to partner with a leading airline to ship fresh fruit and flowers to European markets. “We’ll fly it to Luanda and they’ll complete to home leg further north.” For now though the airline is playing its capacity cards close its chest.
There’s no faster way to get fish from South Africa to Portugal. – Ronel Rossouw
