New service caters for urgent East London shipments

LEONARD NEILL A new air freight service catering for urgent shipments between East London and Johannesburg started this week (August 16) with budget airline 1Time offering cargo space on its daily DC9 flights between the two centres. National carrier SAA offers limited courier type cargo space on its Boeing 737 aircraft, and utilises an overnight trucking service to and from the two centres on a daily basis. 1Time started a Johannesburg-East London service in mid-July, but restricted it to passengers only until this week. “We can now accept up to two tons for immediate delivery between the two destinations,” says Alf Oberholster, station manager for Express Air Services (EAS) in East London. EAS, which handles 1Time cargo bookings on the Cape Town and Durban routes to and from Johannesburg, has now been appointed air freight GSA and ground handling agent in East London. “There are times, of course, when we have capacity reduced when passenger baggage exceeds anticipated levels,” says Oberholster. “But in the main it is business passengers who are using the service right now, which allows us the best part of two tons seven days a week.”