Emergency aid and equipment breakdowns keep Aersud busy

CAPPING PRODUCTION losses or staving off starvation require the same urgent handling that only airfreight can accomplish. Expediency trumps expense. “There’s always a time factor involved. A mine with an equipment breakdown that can take months to get by road we do in a couple of days. For emergency aid relief we are doing four flights to Chad a day, bringing in food and medical cargo,” said Dons Vorster, director of Johannesburg-based Aersud Logistics. All cargo is moved by charter, in leased DC-10 or DC-8 aircraft. The drilling equipment and machinery required by mines is shipped up from Johannesburg or Botswana – some of it made locally, or it arrives at Port Elizabeth or Cape Town by sea for air transport. As usual, the DRC presents its own challenges. G erman-made equipment is shipped to Walvis Bay and brought to Windhoek for urgent flights over the border. Not that SA doesn’t present its own obstacles, such as perennial congestion at the cargo bays at OR Tambo Airport, and booking slots at busy Johannesburg where passenger craft are given preference. “We have adapted. We load at night, and take off in the early morning,” said Vorster.