FATS diversifies into lucrative airfreight market

ALAN PEAT
AS A newcomer to the airfreight into Africa market, Forwarding African Transport Services (FATS) is battering hard on the doors of opportunity, according to managing member Elaine Harris. “With FATS marketing airfreight for just over a year, as a supplementary service to the others that we have been offering to the market for the last 15 years,” she told FTW, “it’s evident that there is a big demand – and it’s an exciting new focus for us.” So far, the FATS books show a lot of the traffic being moved into the East and West Coast of Africa, as well as the sub-Saharan regions. “It’s quite incredible just
how much airfreight traffic
goes into Africa,” said Harris. “We found that in our established
client base all our customers
were looking at African airfreight – even despite the high cost of this mode.” This year will see an even bigger shift of focus with the company not only serving its existing client base but prospecting for added business. Matching the market development, FATS opened a Johannesburg office last July especially for airfreight – with a specialised team of four concentrating on it. “Every month we have
seen an increase in the volumes
of airfreight,” said Harris, “with
a lot of it being in transit cargo from overseas sources travelling
via SA and being transported through our in-bond facility to
the final destination in the continent. “This is a healthy addition to the Africa-bound airfreight traffic being sourced directly from the SA market.”