Charter freighters in short supply locally

THE LIMITED availability of freighters for charter is one of the main problems facing international air charter brokers operating in South Africa, says Dave Purchase, GM for Cargo Marketing International (CMI). “There are only a few locally-based freighter operators with wide-bodied aircraft and they generally have limited time or availability to do charter flights outside of their tight flight schedules.” According to Purchase, most of the 12 types of freighter aircraft chartered by CMI are foreign-based but can be brought to South Africa at short notice. “Our pricing on these freighters is competitive with the local operators and often better.” Most of the company’s business is export related, mainly out of South Africa and the Southern African region for telecommunications, mining, military, motor vehicles, manufacturing plants and printed matter (election materials), says Purchase. Small aircraft are usually chartered to uplift critically urgent spare parts for the mining and motor vehicle industry where a plant may be on shut-down while waiting for these parts. “We also charter small and medium sized passenger aircraft to fly people to a work site, sporting event or business meeting, usually outside of our borders.” The company offers a range of narrow and widebodied freighter aircraft for charter to world wide destinations, as well as smaller aircraft within South Africa and to neighbouring countries. “If available, these aircraft can be airborne within a few hours of being contracted, subject to traffic rights being granted for the required destination outside of our borders,” says Purchase. “We also have a brokerage division which investigates options, pricing and the logistics of air freighting unusual or out-of-gauge shipments or shipments to destinations not served by scheduled airlines.” These shipments are typically less than full freighter loads, sometimes only a few kilograms. “We find an effective routing, over a number of transhipment points, to get that shipment to its intended destination. We price and handle the logistics of the forwarding from origin airport to destination airport,” he says. The company specialises in air charter within Africa, Europe and the Middle East. It has offices in South Africa and representative offices in Britain, Europe and the UAE. It offers a range of freighter aircraft for charter: These include the Boeing 747F-200, B727F, B737F and MD-11F; Antonov 12, AN32, AN26, AN72 and AN124; Douglas DC-8F and DC10F; and Ilyushin IL76 freighters.