Ethiopian offers charter options

Few industry sectors have
escaped the impact of the global
economic downturn – and
charters have not been immune.
“People are holding back on
spending and using charters only
when they really have to,” says
Airline Cargo Resources general
manager Stuart Tonkin.
But despite the depressed state
of the industry the company is
continuing to market its charter
option.
“We use Ethiopian Airlines
as our main charter operator,
although we get prices from
other operators to regions that
Ethiopian doesn’t support. Etihad
Airways also has freighters
available.”
Ethiopian flies to
Johannesburg weekly using a
B757 freighter. They also have
access to B747 freighters and an
MD11.
“These are all available for
charter into Africa,” says Tonkin.
“For Ethiopian it makes good
sense – they’re using the same
aircraft they fly in here to charter
out to certain regions and they
position them back in Ethiopia to
pick up their loads there.”
According to Tonkin the
charter market at present is very
erratic. “The product is there
but people use seafreight where
possible because they’re looking
for the cheapest option.
“Last year we were doing
three to four charters a month,
this year it’s far less regular.”
But there are times when
charter is the only option – with
a mix of telecommunications
equipment, election material,
mining spares and tobacco
moving by charter aircraft.
“The size and volume of cargo
is often too big for scheduled
services and that’s when our
freighters come in useful.
“We’d like to see more growth,
but clearly that will be dictated
by market demands.”