First dedicated air cargo service launched

This year saw the launch by
Swaziland Airlink, the only air
carrier to serve the country, of
the first dedicated cargo aircraft,
albeit on an initially experimental
basis.
“We have high hopes for air
cargo. Airlink is upgrading its
cargo capacity on all its routes.
For Swaziland a Jetstream 41,
formerly a passenger plane, is
now adapted to cargo,” Teddy
Mavuso, CEO of Swaziland
Airlink, told FTW.
The service, introduced in the
first week of October, may seem
optimistic given the low volumes
of air cargo that have historically
moved to and from Swaziland.
But the strategy is that once
a regularly scheduled service
offering unlimited capacity is
available to replace the former
ad hoc service, customer demand
will grow.
“We are trying to see if we
can do a dedicated aircraft for
cargo. Our marketing department
is going around the (Swaziland)
companies to introduce the
service and determine what their
air cargo needs are,” said Mavuso.
Currently, air cargo is a oneway
affair. Some “just in time”
industrial inputs and imports are
the main cargo moved.
“There has been little export
cargo,” said Mavuso. Which is
why Swaziland Airlink is looking
at sharpening its pencil and
reducing its cargo tariffs by as
much as 25% to attract customer
demand and in the process
increase the volumes of airfreight
in particular out of Swaziland,”
said Mavuso.