With an increase in volume and demand, Aero Africa is optimistic about its growing footprint in East Africa, a region that is fast expanding and growing as a trade hub.According to Jade Da Costa, Africa CEO for Aero Africa, the neutral airfreight solutions provider has a wealth of experience in the region and has established itself in recent months as a major role-player thanks to several initiatives.“We were originally going to start this business model 10 years ago as African Express in Kenya, which myself and Christos Spyrou headed,” explained Da Costa. “Now we are in the right position, our business is shaped where we’ve got product directors that can drive specific products into the region and understand it, and we are very optimistic about the future in this region for us as a business.”Referring to the region as “the land of milk and honey", he said Aero Africa was currently in the process of setting up blocked space agreements (BSAs) from China, Europe, the United Kingdom (UK), and the United States (USA) into Africa, with Nairobi as the central hub. “We, as a growing platform in Africa, are looking to drive specific BSA products out of China, when things settle down with the current situation in Shanghai, as well as out of Europe, the UK and the USA into East Africa. These products will be launching during May and will assist in addressing the challenge of space.”He said demand was probably the biggest challenge in East Africa at present. “The freighters are going into Kenya to pick up the fresh produce, fish, and f lowers, for the European market, but everyone is fighting for the space. Handling, on the odd occasion, does become a problem at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, but these are issues we live with and must find the right operational partners, in terms of handling, in terms of GSA partners, and in terms of reliability.”He said when it came to operations, time was a critical factor in the East African market.“If f lights are delayed out of Asia or Europe into Nairobi or any other East African destination, there is a good possibility of missing the connecting f light. This is exacerbated by the fact that some of the harder or trickier destinations might only have a single f light on the day or once a week.”He said turning cargo around, and having it available while utilising interline airlines in Nairobi, required fine planning.“European backlogs also create a problem, but we try to plan as well as we can to avoid cargo not arriving in Nairobi for the connecting f lights.”Da Costa maintains that despite the challenges, there are many opportunities to grow in the region.“There is a lot of pharmaceutical equipment moving via Nairobi as the hub, and there are still mining operations in the eastern DRC, northern Tanzania in Mwanza, southern Tanzania, and the developments in the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) field to name a few. As the region recovers and returns to normal after the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, projects are taking off again, people are returning to the region to work, and operations are back on track.”He said volumes were returning. “Over the past 18 months, there has been an increase in eCommerce of roughly 30%. There is no doubt demand for space.”He said much of the eCommerce was being sourced in the US and routed to East Africa via Europe.
