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.