EAS offers special baggage rate for Zambia-bound cargo

Service could be extended to other carriers
KEVIN MAYHEW
AFTER TAKING over the cargo management of Zambian Airways in February 2001, Express Air Services (EAS) is introducing a further feature on its Johannesburg-Lusaka flights – a convenient and cheaper unaccompanied baggage rate and service. “This has been very successful and we are seeing the service grow,” says EAS Zambia’s managing director, Vincent Banda. “We will in fact be extending it to Ndola, Livingstone, Chipata, Mfuwe and Harare flights,” he said . In terms of its airline cargo management contract with Zambian Airways, EAS undertakes the total management and marketing of the airline’s freight services between Johannesburg and Lusaka. This allows the airline to focus on its core passenger business while benefiting from specialist knowledge in the management of cargo. And now EAS has turned its attention to providing those very passengers with an even better service. Explains newly appointed general manager, international, John Murray: “There are many individuals who travel to South Africa from Zambia and do a lot of shopping which they then take back as baggage. “The airport passenger check-in counters are not conducive to the handling of excessive amounts of traders’ baggage, comprising commercial volumes many times in excess of the allowed passenger baggage limit. “Our unaccompanied baggage service will simplify the check-in process, as the passenger will deliver the baggage to the EAS international cargo facility and not have to process this baggage via the passenger terminal. To benefit from the new service, passengers need to have their air ticket and passport and we take care of the formalities of customs clearance and the like,” Murray said. In the case of Zambia, they will meet their luggage in Lusaka when they arrive. Murray adds that all unaccompanied baggage will be treated the same way as normal cargo with multiple security screening and inspections before it is placed on board its flight. “It is our aim and intention to provide this service on as many carriers as possible and it will be available from August this year,” he said. Zambian Airways provides five return flights from Johannesburg to Lusaka each week, with daily connecting flights to Ndola and regular flights to Mfuwe, Chipata and Livingstone. EAS has daily connections into Southern and Central Africa through its partners Zambian Airways, Comair and Rwandair Express as well as connections globally through Qatar Airways. International destinations served by EAS and its airline partners include, Bujumbura, Entebbe, Kigali, Lusaka, Ndola, Windhoek, Harare, Dubai, Shanghai, Europe, London, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Beijing.