Virgin answers CT forum's prayers

Ray Smuts TALK ABOUT wishful thinking! No sooner had Cape Town freight executive Wayne Lazo expressed a desire for more Virgin Atlantic Airways flights into the Cape than the carrier announced it was doubling its weekly service to the Mother City. Lazo, director of Megafreight Services, was a participant in FTW's recently-facilitated freight forwarder's forum with Cape Town International Airport's new general manager Monwabisi Kalawe where he questioned SAA's continuing dominance of domestic skies, arguing that the likes of Virgin should have a better deal. That is soon to become a reality with the airline announcing last week that it would introduce a third weekly service between London and Cape Town by November and the fourth soon thereafter. The company is aiming for six flights a week next year and a daily flight soon after that. "This is good news indeed, certainly a step in the right direction," Lazo told FTW last week. "We know Virgin has been pushing for this for a long time and their more frequent flights will help exporters tremendously. "Probably 90% of agents are largely reliant on imports so the news from Virgin is very welcome from that perspective" Jason Schouw, a director of J J's Airfreight Cape, specialising in perishables, also expressed delight at the announcement. "It's about time exporters have another option to SAA and BA, and the Virgin service will certainly be warmly received." MacKenzie Grant, Virgin's regional manager for Africa, told this writer that the Airbus 340-300 aircraft employed on the Cape Town route had a freight capacity of between seven and 13 tons depending on passenger load. Asked how much extra capacity would now be available to Cape forwarders, he replied: "We try to establish relationships with shippers and forwarders and much of the cargo space is pre-booked. Allocations are not done years in advance but rather on a month to month basis." Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin, said the airline had been losing big money by being allowed only two flights a week because the infrastructure could accommodate four. While the Cape Town service was expensive to run the company was prepared to maintain it as a long-term investment.