Nairobi to be developed at East Africa hub
ANNA COX
SAA Cargo is expecting a 34% growth into Africa in the fiscal year 2004/2005.
That’s the word from Anne Sanders, new route manager Africa and Middle East who has been involved in the Americas and Asia for six years.
“SAA Corporate is placing great emphasis on its African strategy, looking at growth and new routes in and out of Africa. The intention is to create hubs in both East and West Africa,” she said.
One of the new routes is the movement of traffic between Bamako, Mali and South Africa. This cargo will be routed via Dakar, Senegal. Due to the market demand for both Lagos and Accra, SAA Cargo is looking into the possibility of operating a freighter service on this route as it can no longer rely on the belly space of the passenger aircraft.
There has been substantial growth from South America and Australia to Nigeria and Ghana, the commodities being mining and telecommunication equipment, she said. In East Africa, SAA Cargo intends to create Nairobi as its hub. “We will be able to feed Bujumbura, Kigali and Dar es Salaam from here and will then free the existing SAA Cargo freighter operation for other routes such as Johannesburg - Ndola - Kinshasa - Lusaka - Johannesburg,” she said.
SAA Cargo launched a freighter service on the Johannesburg - Lusaka route in April this year. Based on its success a second frequency is on the cards, said Sanders.
The other routes under investigation are freighter operations between South Africa and Madagascar as well as the possibility of a feeder from Nairobi into the Seychelles. “One just needs to get the balance of trade correct between the inbound and outbound to destinations within Africa,” she said.
The freighters are normally filled to capacity northbound to all these destinations, but southbound has been neglected over the years.
The airline recently held its African Conference where the strategy as well as the dynamics behind making this strategy a success, were discussed. “South African Airways is in a strong position in Africa. However, we cannot rely on this to boost our expected growth on the continent. We realise that there are other reputable airlines out there that are in the same market as we are and we respect this. But this does not mean that South African Airways Cargo cannot be the ‘Carrier of Choice’ to and from Africa,” she said.
