Cargo capacity has been one of the biggest challenges to contend with in the Cape airfreight sector.This was significantly exacerbated with the outbreak of the coronavirus which saw hundreds of planes grounded and routes cancelled.According to Ryan Meyer, Cape Town airfreight operations supervisor at CFR Freight, fortunately a select few f lights have continued to service Cape Town airport throughout the current lockdown and restrictions.“Not all f lights have, however, resumed and at present we still don’t have access to the capacity we did previously.”This continues to hamper operations for the company which offers regular weekly consolidations out of the US, Europe and Asia to the Cape via Johannesburg. With fewer f lights available greater use of land transport has been the only option.“With few direct f lights from Cape Town and the space so constrained, we have no choice but to utilise trucking services from and to Johannesburg.”A limited number of in- and outbound f lights has decreased tonnage to the region which has impacted the economy.He said f lights were slowly being reintroduced, allowing for services to resume.
