SAA brings on Dar and Entebbe freighter

SAA Cargo has extended its regional reach with the introduction of new freighter services to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Entebbe in Uganda. According to Dixon Nkomo, executive manager: Africa for SAA Cargo, this follows much deliberation with customers who indicated a need for the airline to increase its capacity into Africa. “We have also added a flight to Maputo in our seven-day schedule,” he told FTW. Using mostly narrow body aircraft in its African network, the airline’s freight capacity has been severely restricted as it was limited to the available belly-hold space on these passenger flights. “We use wide body aircraft only to Accra, Lagos, Windhoek, Luanda and Nairobi. With all the other destinations being serviced by narrow body aircraft, we just did not have enough capability. Including these two destinations in our freighter schedule increases our capacity dramatically.” Using a Boeing 737 300 freighter with a capacity of 16 tons, SAA Cargo will now fly from Johannesburg to Dar es Salaam to Entebbe back to Johannesburg once in a seven-day schedule. The additional flight to Maputo means the airline will service Mozambique twice in a seven-day schedule. According to Tleli Makhetha, SAA Cargo general manager, the airline is strengthening its position in Africa and more routes are on the cards for its freighters. “As a state-owned enterprise we are tasked with making what the politicians say a reality and developing not just our own economy. Enhancing our role in Africa is high on our agenda. We have been talking to our customers as well and it is clear the market wants more capacity into Africa. As an airline we are committed to meeting that need,” he said. Makhetha said that the cargo arm would no doubt grow as the passenger destinations grew. “We are also committed to introducing as many freighter routes as possible. The speed at which we introduce these will be dictated by our customers.” Nkomo said with the current fleet of freighters southern Africa was well covered and it made sense to extend its reach into Eastern Africa. “We can’t go much further north with our current fleet,” said Nkomo. “However, we want to strengthen our foothold in the areas that we service at present before expanding further north.” He said South Africa had a major role to play as a gateway into Africa as a lot of cargo was entering the country through the European and Middle- Eastern carriers. “We see our role as the distributors of that cargo in our region – growing and therefore introducing new routes and creating more capacity is a key strategy at present.”