Nigerian smokers keep Hydro Air flying high

NIGERIANS ARE clearly enjoying the flavour of South African-manufactured cigarettes. Container loads are being flown to the region on Hydro Air services from Johannesburg.
“It’s been among the biggest orders we’ve handled for the freighter airline,” says Gerd von Mansberg, managing director of GSA The Cargo Connection. Lagos, he says, has become such a busy destination for the service that an occasional additional charter flight has been arranged.
“There’s an election looming in the country in April, and we are already working on the delivery of the ballot boxes and all that goes with them, flying up from Johannesburg.”
Hydro Air flights into Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have achieved what he terms ‘mixed success’. Numerous problems at the airport have hampered deliveries but, says Von Mansberg, “we are trying for improved service levels and we will get there.”
The GSA service for Egypt Air is likely to receive a boost with the possibility of an additional weekly frequency to be added to the Johannesburg-Cairo route on a Thursday. This could call at Lusaka on the northbound route, providing additional capacity to Zambia.
“We are inundated with cargo requirements to Cairo and ongoing transhipments,” he says. “This has been a highly successful operation.”
Khalifa Airways, the Algerian airline that The Cargo Connection represents, is now including a service to the Comores from Johannesburg every Tuesday. The incoming flight from Algiers arrives in the morning and after off-loading flies on to the islands and returns to Johannesburg the same day before flying on to Algeria that night.