Bruce van Wyk . . .
There's fierce competition among the major cargo
handlers at South Africa's airports. Airfreight Express's Leonard Neill takes a look at what some of them are doing to keep ahead of the pack.We are currently finalising the GSA contract with Regional Air
AFRICA IS a major opportunity waiting, says Express Air Services' Bruce van Wyk, "and our partner airlines share this point of view," he told Airfreight Express.
So upbeat is Van Wyk
on the issue that he has
targeted the continent as his major sales venture in recent months, with solid rewards.
"We have expanded into Africa with a vengeance. We now have offices in Windhoek, Harare, Lusaka and Ndola, and are opening up in Victoria Falls and Livingstone," he says.
"Within the next few months our African network will include routes such as Lusaka to Harare (direct), and Windhoek to Ndola (via Johannesburg). We have obtained the GSA (General Sales Agency) and handling contract for Zambian Airways, which is a code share partner of Comair.
"We are currently finalising the GSA contract with Regional Air, a Kenyan
airline operating 737-400 aircraft from Nairobi to
various East African and Southern African states."
Apart from this, however, EAS moves in the region of 3200 parcels daily on domestic services, with the company having opened a Bloemfontein office recently to service Nationwide Airlines which is now flying to that centre from Johannesburg.
The international scene remains buoyant, says Van Wyk, with EAS handling Hydro Air to Europe and El Al to Israel, in exports only, and constantly finding new consignments signed up for both services.
"We are already looking to the end-of-year high season, where we must strike a balance between our loyal dry cargo customers and higher yielding perishable movements," he says.
