King Shaka Airport ‘fingers’ Kingfisher

Having just secured a contract to move specialised broadcasting equipment for a Mexican television station during the Fifa 2010 Soccer World Cup, Kingfisher Freight has seen a major increase in its specialised project work since the beginning of the year. “We have always been involved in project cargo,” says managing director Alwyn Nel. “But there has been a definite increase since the beginning of the year and in the past month we managed to successfully complete several major projects. We are also very excited about the project for the World Cup.” Along with its international partners, Kingfisher moved some 110 pieces of breakbulk cargo with a weight of 335 430 kilograms for the new King Shaka International Airport in Durban last month. “The cargo consisted of the fingers for the new airport as well as the equipment and hydraulics for its operation and were moved via the ports of Gijon in Spain and Durban locally.” Already assembled at the airport site in La Mercy in Durban, the project involved loading, discharge, abnormal transportation rigging and customs clearing. Another major project completed by the company in recent weeks was the door-to-door movement of a cooker and various other smaller items from Mumbai in India to Johannesburg. The cooker, a single abnormal piece weighing in at about 95 tons, was nearly 11 meters in length and 5.7 meters in diameter, and required much heavy lifting at the Mumbai Port where it was loaded as well as at the Durban port where it arrived. According to Nel, Kingfisher has over the years moved significant volumes. “But we have in recent months been able to pick up some nice pieces.” And he believes versatility and reliability has played an important role. It is for this reason that Television Azteca in Mexico has contracted the company to move all of its broadcasting equipment and accessories from its home base in Mexico to South Africa for the World Cup. “This is a project we are very excited about as we are not only moving some 40 tons of equipment into South Africa, but will be responsible for the movement of it for the duration of the World Cup.” The broadcasting equipment will be flown into South Africa and then moved to each stadium as and when required by Television Azteca. “It really is about being able to control a lot of variables that ensures success in this niche market,” said Nel.