Growing its local airfreight business continues to be a strategy for Leschaco, which has recently employed 10 more people in its South African operations.According to Peter Schmidt-Löff ler, CEO for Sub-Saharan Africa, the employment drive has boosted operations, allowing the company to not only increase its airfreight shipments both on the export and import side, but to maintain its service levels. “We see the airfreight market growing,” said Schmidt-Löff ler.Commenting on trends in the airfreight sector, he said customers were increasingly demanding guaranteed space at market-related rates. “Importers are also ordering more and more on a just-in-time (JIT) basis, which means their cargo must f ly out.”This, he said, continued to contribute to the growth in the airfreight sector. “The demand for airfreight remains high.”Schmidt-Löff ler said space was still a challenge, considering the number of airlines grounded after the outbreak of the global pandemic, but carriers were gradually returning to the skies and coming back into the South African market.“With more carriers f lying into South Africa there is, of course, the opportunity to find viable airfreight solutions for importers and exporters,” he said. “Another opportunity for the sector has to do with the challenges being experienced in ocean freight, where delays and blank sailings continue to put pressure on the system. This has led to an increase in demand for airfreight that we do not foresee tapering off at all soon.”
