WHEN IT comes to airfreight shipping, customers are sensitive to pricing – especially Africa. “It is a factor. There isn’t an abundance of money out there especially during times of fuel increases, and customers do shop around for the best deal in airfreight. If an airfreight company can offer a price break, it gives a competitive edge,” said Adam Bernhardt, airfreight exports operations manager at Intraspeed. The company offers lower prices by negotiating and building relations with airlines for routes and cheaper fares, says Bernhardt. The result: large companies like Mitsubishi, Nissan and Coca-Cola with big loads to airfreight are some of Intraspeed’s staple clients. “We specialise in Africa, and we have deals with MK Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Safari Express and SAA,” said Bernhardt, who lists key destinations as Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Chad, Ethiopia, Tanzania and elsewhere. “Uganda is our biggest route at the moment. We recently filled six chartered aircraft with beer bottles from Zimbabwe, and transhipped through Johannesburg to Kampala. Nigeria has become a very big destination for security as well as telecommunications equipment,” he added.
