Resolution of the ground handling disruption at OR Tambo International Airport (ORT) seems to be in sight thanks to industry intervention, Mike Walwyn of the SA Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff) has confirmed.
This comes after Freight News was last week alerted to the parlous state of air cargo processing at ORT by Aero-Link Consulting (https://www.freightnews.co.za/article/cargo-ortia-scattered-all-over-show).
Footage shared by at least two anonymous informers clearly showed boxes strewn about with contents spilling over the tarmac.
In one of the pictures, masks intended to protect people from contracting the coronavirus, were lying exposed on the ground.
Such was the situation of apparent incapacitation by the general sales agent (GSA) involved that a freight forwarding company who approached Freight News said for most of the stage five lockdown period they had barely drawn any cargo on behalf of their clients.
Last week though, Saaff and several other logistics concerns intervened, accelerating attempts as far as possible to resolve the cargo crisis.
Some two days after the issue was first aired, Worldnet Logistics CEO Rob Stead said on Friday that upwards of 35 additional staff had been seconded to assist with clearing up the backlog of cargo delivery.
Earlier this afternoon Walwyn confirmed that other agents at the airport “all pitched in and managed to spread the load”.
It included staff from Lufthansa, Menzies Aviation and SAA, he said.
And although it seemed that it would still take some time to deal with the chaos created by the GSA's inability to deal with incoming cargo, “the situation had improved significantly”, Walwyn said.
Stead agreed saying: “On the floor things are looking much better. They have moved all the loose pieces over to Lufthansa but still have to do a systems reconciliation of available stock – what is where.”
He added that he hoped they would soon be able to draw cargo faster.
“The signs are promising, and while things are better organised, they should try and get their systems information right so we can get freight out sooner.”
