A US airline is grounding its 14-strong freighter fleet of Boeing 747-200s by year-end in an attempt to save bucks in its increasingly loss-making cargo division. But, said Anne Sanders of GSAfrica – the general sales agent for Delta cargo in SA – this will have no effect on the SA route, which is in any case one of the airline’s most profitable cargo airways. The freighter fleet is mostly operative on the US and Canada to the Far East routes, she added, while SA is served by bellyhold capacity on Delta’s passenger flights to and from this country. “Also,” Sanders said, “our yield is fairly high – probably 50% higher than the rest of the networks.” She foresaw no changes in the current Delta offering to SA airfreight users, despite its freighter fleetcutting exercise.
