Customs co-operation speeds clearance at JIA

ALAN PEAT CUSTOMS AT Johannesburg International Airport (JIA) has made great steps forward in the past year, according to Max Mariotti, MD of Aviation GSA. This after last October, when he accused customs of putting revenue collection targets before trade facilitation - saying that planes often left without their cargo because of customs’ tardiness. “Although there have been hiccups along the way,” he told FTW, “there has been major progress with the new paperless environment.” The airport users have now also opened up a good communication channel with customs. “The Air Cargo Operators Committee (ACOC), for example, now meets with the customs authorities every month,” Mariotti added, “and they are listening to what we tell them.” One complaint that this has overcome is the agents’ grievance regarding virtually no customs representation regarding the airport at weekends - which often left cargoes in limbo until the following week. “But we put this before customs,” said Mariotti, “and they now have a seven-days-a-week operation. “Also, with electronic clearance, the speed of clearance now matches the needs of the high-speed airfreight industry.” Mariotti also praised customs for recognising that the airport cargo facilities were “purely transit sheds”, and that it was the airfreight agents’ bonded warehouses outside the airport that were responsible for keeping the traffic flow going. “An example is customs currently licensing more off-airport degroupage operations,” he said, “and this is a tremendous leap in the right direction.”