KN fills in Angola shortfall with charters

TAAG, ANGOLA'S national air carrier, continues to carry vast cargo loads of equipment needed in Angola's development programme out of South Africa, but where necessary charter aircraft are employed to meet backlogs as part of Kuehne & Nagel's (KN) services to the country. "We have 120 tons of space available to us weekly in the three scheduled flights from Johannesburg to Luanda," says KN regional manager sub-Saharan Africa, Karl-Heinz Balzer. "This is Boeing 747 main deck capacity, which allows 40tons at a time and which can take up to 20ft pallets. "If we get into a backlog situation, however, we clear the situation with TAAG and then organise a full charter out of Johannesburg. We accept this can be uneconomical at times, with very little cargo available on the return route, but it is a service we provide for our customers." KN holds the general sales rights to the airline, and is currently handling large volumes of mining equipment, machinery, auto spares and perishables destined for Angolan markets. In addition the company serves TAAG in a similar operation on southbound flights from Europe to Luanda (once a week from Paris and three times a week from Lisbon), as well as a weekly incoming flight from Rio de Janeiro. Perishables make up the bulk of incoming Paris flights, with general cargo the order out of Lisbon, and mining and construction equipment manufactured in Brazil coming in on the Rio flight. Angola Air Charter (AAC), a TAAG subsidiary, offers connecting flights on a Boeing 727F with 15 tons capacity to Soyo and Cabinda and, on request, to Point Noire in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In another operation, Son Air offers freight capacity on a twice-a-week service between Houston in the US Gulf and Luanda. Freight capacity of 12,5 tons is available on the MD11 combi aircraft employed. "It's taken us two years of hard work to get these cargo services running to meet our requirements and it gives us a major control of freight movements in and out of Angola," says Balzer. Referring to comments made from other sources regarding difficulties with Angolan customs officials in both language and the interpretation of local regulations, Balzer says this has been overcome by having own offices in Luanda, Soyo and Cabinda. "There are no problems which the staff there cannot sort out with customs, and we are satisfied that the type of service we are providing in the country is the best available."