Cape forwarders reject SAA's road feeder plans

9 Jun 2000 - By Staff reporter

Comments | 0

SAAFF is concerned at dwindling
capacity, writes Alan Peat

THE CAPE forwarding community has taken issue with South African Airways over its freight policy which industry leaders believe could spell the end of domestic airfreight.
It's a very real fear amongst the forwarding community in the Cape, according to Gavin Cooper, managing director of Seair Freight and regional chairman of SAAFF (SA Association of Freight Forwarders).
With SAA about to introduce the low cargo capacity Boeing 737-800s to replace the high capacity Airbuses; and a proposed move to road feeder services for SAA Cargo, the supply of air cargo space is bound to dwindle, he added.
The theoretical figure for an Airbus A310 in passenger configuration, he told FTW, is 25.2-tons. The 737-300 (predecessor of the 800 model) carries 5.7-t. Even in freighter form, the 737 (2K2C model) only carries 20.9-t.
Here in Cape Town, Cooper said, we have viewed SAA's selling off their Airbuses in favour of the 737-800s with great concern.
You can also couple SAA selling off their freighters, while at the same time blocking other airlines from flying into Cape Town.
We want to know how cargo is going to move - but we're getting no answers out of them about their new cargo plans.
While Airbuses will still be in service till next February, according to SAA Cargo's senior manager (cargo revenue), Chris Greensides, they recognise what the aircraft change means. We're losing the wide-bodied aircraft, he said.
But, he added, we need to be able to service our clients.
This is likely to be road feeder services between Johannesburg and the regional centres, Durban, East London and PE, he said.
We've already got a project team researching the road services, Greenside said.
They also have access to Transnet's road sections, he added, talking about the new business division, Freightdynamic.
This combination of Portnet Cartage, Autonet, CX and possibly Fastforward, according to Cooper, will have a great impact on the road transport industry. But it's not going to do much for airfreight.
A trucking service (from Jnb) takes up to 18-hours to Cape Town, Cooper said. So it's not a very good replacement for a domestic/international air service, is it?
And, while Greensides reckons that 16-18 daily flights to Cape Town are planned, Cooper asked what this would mean with the new aircraft's limited capacity.
On enquiry at SAA Cargo, Cooper was advised that they had concerns about the drop in revenue from the lesser space availability.
But I was told that - with a greater number of flights - there would be a new express service, which would make up for this.
Excuse me - but what about the poor cargo owner who faces less capacity, but is asked to pay more.
What SAAFF wants, Cooper added, is a full explanation of the SAA plans for cargo. We still know nothing about what these new plans are, he said, and the first 737-800 is due to be delivered in a month or so.
But SAA Cargo will be out with its own roadshow, Greensides told FTW.
We need to have lots of meetings with our users, he said. We intend to talk to SAAFF and other individual bodies - like fruit and flower growers, and fish and lobster people - to discuss everything about their needs and commodities.
We're very conscious of what's happening, and we're talking to everybody now.