While the Port of Cape Town has been a tale of woe since the pandemic, airfreight volumes at Cape Town International Airport have seen unprecedented growth.
The total value of goods airfreighted out of Cape Town jumped by more than 57% since 2018, rising from R13.9 billion in that year to R21.9 billion last year. The growth since 2021 amounted to more than 43% in rand value, and 18% since 2022.
According to the Business Outlook on Logistics in Cape Town and the Western Cape, a joint report by the South African Association of Freight Forwarders (Saaff) and the Western Cape development agency Wesgro, “international air cargo to and from CTIA has boomed in the last couple of years, with a significant increase in the breadth and depth of the airport’s connectivity with the rest of the world. Year-to-date air cargo handled at CTIA is up 33% compared to 2023; however, the trend continues much further back. Compared with the other major international airports in South Africa, using 2016 as a baseline, Cape Town is in a league of its own.”
The data was calculated from information of Saaff and Business Unity SA’s freight logistics, courtesy of ACOC data.
With the average of 2016 representing 100, airfreight volumes out of Cape Town stood at 190, compared with 105 at King Shaka and 101 at OR Tambo. In November and December of 2023, Cape Town reached index values of 376 and 339 respectively, compared with Durban’s 220 and 84, and OR Tambo’s 116 and 103.
The most valuable goods exported from Cape Town International in 2023 were jewellery (valued at R2.6 billion), petroleum oils (also R2.6 billion) and fresh fruit (valued at R2.013 billion).
Other products valued at more than R1 billion were parts for radar navigation, radio broadcast and reception devices (R1.04 billion) and molluscs (R1.02 billion).
The agriculture sector, one of the most valuable export sectors in the Western Cape, has been particularly hard-hit by problems at the port. It is therefore not surprising that agriculture and confectionery products made up 27% of all products valued at more than R100 000 airfreighted out of Cape Town last year.
Some of the most notable increases among product classes of which export values numbered R40 million and above include a 46% increase in the value of table grapes and raisins airfreighted out of Cape Town between 2022 and 2023 (84.6% since 2021), a 42% increase in chilled or frozen mutton (348% since 2021) and a 141% increase in the value of fresh or chilled beef.
Wine exports by airfreight increased by 37% from 2022 to 2023 and by 140% from 2021 to 2023.
