SAA plans more freighters on African routes

Export-weighted trade kills profitability ONE-DIRECTIONAL air cargo and trade poses a serious challenge to the airfreight industry. “We fully utilise our outbound capacity into the African markets that we serve, but return with low or zero load factors which kills profitability,” says SAA Cargo GM Patrick Dlamini. “European airlines dump capacity by selling space at unreasonable rates and, most of the time, at less than fuel surcharges, which makes it very difficult for South African Cargo to compete.” He believes that the airline is currently too dependent on belly space to the African market. “The disadvantage is that SAA flies narrow-bodied aircraft, which limits capacity into these markets at a time when our customers are demanding more space. “We simply cannot grow by only utilising the belly space in our Airbus A340-600s and A340Es. At present we have four dedicated freighters that operate domestically and regionally to Luanda, Harare and Blantyre.” The airline’s focus for the next five years will be the acquisition of more freighters. “This will help us to grow the business from 12.5% to 30% revenue contribution in five years," he said. The company is in the process of formulating a strategy to support this vision, which is to be “the leader in air cargo services between South Africa and the world”.