Cargo ‘open sesame’ on UK-SA route

THE CARGO airway between SA and the UK is now an unrestricted market. This is part of the new, hot-off-the-press, bilateral aviation agreement between the two countries’ governments. “Cargo is an open market,” said the department of transport’s Anwar Gany. It follows the DoT’s plans for the future development of SA’s air cargo market – with hubbing airfreight through such facilities as the Dube Tradeport at Durban’s new King Shaka Airport at La Mercy (due to open at the end of 2 009) – one of the development paths in the department’s way forward, according to Gany. An open market is certainly an acceptable principle, said Alwyn Rautenbach, MD of Airlink Cargo and chairman of the Air Cargo Operators' Committee (ACOC). “It will mean that you can fly cargo aircraft at any frequency you want, or need,” he added. Although the new bilateral agreement was so “hot-offthe- press” that he hadn’t seen the details of the new proposal, Chris Zweigenthal of the Airlines Association of SA told FTW that it meant that SA was following an international trend. “Although there are still restrictions on passenger flights,” he said, “many countries around the world have now taken much more liberal standpoints on cargo aircraft movement.” While it opens the air doors in SA and the UK, there isn’t a host of airlines sitting in the wings waiting with bated breath for this deregulation of the air cargo market. It’s still all too new, said Patrick Fehring, cargo manager in SA for British Airways World Cargo (BAWC), for the airline to make any moves in the market. Belly-hold cargo capacity in the airline’s passenger flights has satisfied BAWC’s needs, and freighters have not been part of its offerings on the SA-UK airway up to now, he added. And – unless a study of the bilateral’s details and the market potential change it – they’re not part of BAWC’s immediate thinking. But passenger airline BA has already got itself lots of extra cargo space in its future flight schedule, with the successful bilateral talks between the SA and British governments having opened up 14 extra frequencies for British air carriers, and, as a reciprocal, the same number for SA airlines. BA intends to increase its SA services by another seven flights from April 2 009, bringing the number of flights the airline will be able to operate to 35 a week.