Significant capacity upgrade on Europe-Africa route

Last Wednesday saw the official launch by British Airways World Cargo and Iberia – the single cargo business unit of International Airlines Group (IAG) – of its new B747-8 freighter, Boeing’s latest-generation aircraft. The aircraft is scheduled to fly from Stansted on a Monday and will arrive in Johannesburg early Tuesday morning before departing for Nairobi on Tuesday evening at approximately 19:00 local time. It arrives in Nairobi at midnight and then departs for Zaragoza at 02:00, before arriving back at Stansted on Wednesday morning. “Africa is predominantly a perishable market and we continue to see strong support in this area. Growth for us takes the form of general cargo with the introduction of the freighter aircraft into Africa. We do currently fly general cargo on the line flights but having main deck capability allows us to grow in this particular product vertically,” Mark Stubbings, BA World Cargo regional manager for Africa, told FTW. “By sharing the routing with Nairobi, I believe we are very well positioned to bring an aircraft of this size into the Africa market,” Stubbings said. “The ability to carry outsized cargo that cannot be carried on the line flights due to belly capacity constraints in the size and weight is part of the rationale for doing this. The freighter allows us to move such things as cars, specialist vehicles and various other items that just cannot fit on a standard aircraft, plus the perishable business already available. “We offer direct access to Spain, the UK and Europe, plus the ability to connect to both the Iberia and British Airways networks.” He said that the collaboration between BA and Iberia to form IAG was a perfect opportunity to tie the UK with Spain and then Africa. When asked about the growth of trade between the Far East and Africa, Stubbings commented: “We continue to operate freighter aircraft between the Far East and the UK/Europe. Having the B747-8 allows this business to continue to grow into and out of Africa. It also allows us to grow our share of the capacity in all markets due to the larger capacity of the new aircraft.” The new “Dash-8” 747-8 freighters can accommodate 16% more cargo volume and are 5.6 metres longer than the Boeing 747-400, making them the largest freight aircraft in Africa.