Sam Ndlovu . . ‘We are building a network to remote regions.’
THE NORTH west coast of Africa is a hive of opportunity for airfreight from South Africa - especially into the likes of Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal - and will be the top development target for SAA Cargo in the months ahead, says marketing manager for Africa Sam Ndlovu.
Wider bodied aircraft are the major requirement, he says, allowing greater capacity. A great deal of planning, therefore, during the rest of 2003 will centre on the introduction of the new Airbus fleet into the schedules.
“We have a fair amount of capacity on the service right now, but the medium-range Airbus will be a great help,” he says. “Right now business in that sector is growing so fast that South African companies are setting up bases there, and more and more machinery is being airlifted for the urgent developing needs of the region.”
Ndlovu returned at the end of last month from a fact-finding trip to Dakar, which SAA Cargo sees as the ideal hub for distribution of goods to neighbouring countries. A transhipment deal is being arranged through Air Senegal’s services.
“We are building a network to uplift people and cargo from Dakar to places that are really the ‘middle of nowhere’. Our major challenge right now is arranging services and ensuring that the required infrastructure developments take place in these remote areas,” he says.
One of the factors affecting cargo in Dakar, as well as other leading West African destinations like Accra and Lagos, is the international security regulations. These are now becoming standard policy and make cargo acceptable only from known and established freight forwarders.
“Along with this we are jacking up our own security at these airports,” he says.
The airline’s two dedicated 737 freighters that serve the domestic market at present are also being targeted for use into Central Africa, with the marked increase in freight for the DRC a major consideration.
“We want to use at least one of the freighters for service into SADC regions within a two-hour flight range from Johannesburg, where we can handle 12 to 13 ton uplifts,” he says. “There is a huge demand for space into Kinshasa and we hope to have the freighter travelling there from April.”
