Central and southern region show healthy growth - ' Airfreight plays critical role in economic devel

ALAN PEAT
AFRICA IS full of opportunities for airfreight services, but freight agents and shippers should recognise that South Africa’s location on the southern tip of the continent limits the area it can serve effectively as an airfreight hub, according to Francois Wolmarans, MD of Express Air Services (EAS). “We feel that the viable market is to a large extent limited to the southern and central regions of the continent, due to the routings and networks available to agents and shippers out of Europe and the Middle East via well established hubs such as Nairobi,” he told FTW. “We’re certainly an ideal distribution hub for the southern region. But Nairobi in Kenya – with large numbers of international airlines calling and Kenya Airlines with a widespread network – is a major competitor as a hub servicing its immediate region in Africa.” But the prime airfreight market in the central and southern region has been showing healthy growth in recent times. “Many of these African countries have shown promising developments both politically and economically, despite one or two notable exceptions,” said Wolmarans. “This has seen fast improving economies measured in annual GDP growth – which in turn encourages air traffic in-and-out of the region.” EAS has been taking advantage of this growth trend and now successfully operates nine routes in the southern and central region with its partner airlines – linking with Windhoek, Ndola, Lusaka, Harare, Victoria Falls, Livingstone, Dar es Salaam, Mauritius and Kigali in Rwanda. “We have had very successful track records at our branches in Ndola, Windhoek, Harare and Lusaka,” said Wolmarans, “and we’re looking to expand this network with our airline partners to the benefit of South African agents and shippers, providing a greater variety of options and increased competition in respect of intra-Africa freight movement.” Export flights from SA into many African destinations tend to fly full, he added, making a “guesstimate” that about 60%-70% of the goods being transported are of SA origin – with equipment and supplies and consumer durables (“white goods”) being the stars of the show. But the incoming cargo volumes are still relatively limited – with perishables like organically grown vegetables and flowers the primary products being “hubbed” through Johannesburg. “However,” said Wolmarans, “a lot of the countries which were previously not that strong have introduced more sensible economic policies, and have been looking at ways of growing their economies. Airfreight has a critical role to play in such a process.”