Express airfreight market on an upward spiral

ALAN PEAT THE EXPRESS airfreight market in Gauteng is growing apace, according to Mattie Boswell, Gauteng branch manager of Express Air Services (EAS). Company records show that its national express airfreight volume grew by 9% over the period May 2006 to May 2007 – an increase of 434 400- kilograms. And, Boswell added, the bulk of that traffic is in-and-out of Gauteng. In its daytime service, EAS is using the belly-cargo capacity of the airlines Comair, Kulula and One-Time – doing both the cargo sales and handling for these carriers. This allows coverage of the routes between Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London and George – with an average of about 108 flights a day out of Johannesburg’s OR Tambo Airport. “We are getting an average express cargo capacity of about one-and-a-half tons a flight,” said Boswell. Supplementing this daily service is the use of Imperial Air Cargo (IAC) freighters to service the EAS night-time express market. Since the launch of this service last August, Boswell told FTW, it has had an extremely useful spin-off for EAS. “A lot of customers in the market want one express service provider for all their needs,” she added. “So the fact that we have had the IAC night-time service has helped boost our daytime service.” The airline’s two 21-ton capacity Boeing 727 freighters offer a service each night from Monday to Friday – linking Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. On the Johannesburg-Durban- Johannesburg route, meantime, the airline uses the seven-ton Antonov freighter. “George and East London,” said Boswell, “we service by road from Port Elizabeth. “But, even using this bi-modal delivery/collection, our EAS service still matches the transit timing of our main opposition, SAA – getting consignments there in the same time they do, or often even quicker.”