With a firm foothold in South Africa, Aero Africa is rapidly accelerating its East African ambitions through key objectives, including the appointment of a CCO Africa to oversee operations to the east and west of the continent, and entering into a joint venture (JV) arrangement.Director for the neutral airfreight solutions provider, Jade da Costa, is understandably unwilling to divulge any detail about the JV, especially as it pertains to the company’s bid to establish a regional freighter programme (RFP).Although it is fundamentally independent of carriers insofar as its services are concerned, the regional plan was to link up locally with Nairobi, Da Costa said.“The transit point will still be Johannesburg because we’re limited with carriers coming in, but on the southern African side we’re still working on an RFP. “Once that is set up we can manage longhaul volume cargo out of Europe, Asia and the US into South Africa and tranship it into Kenya – a big reach for our hub aspirations out east.”Over and above the JV development, Aero Africa already has carrier partners in play.“We have options out there. Astral Aviation is doing phenomenal work. They have additional aircraft and are cleaning up in that market.“In comparison, our business is offering total solutions and final-mile deliveries in the East African (EA) region.”More importantly, hooking up with established aircraft owners had enabled the company to give f light to its EA goals – but on their terms, Da Costa emphasised.“It’s time that we put our f lag in the ground there, but we don’t just want to be using agents if we’re a neutral party. We want to operate independently. We need to drive some neutral products to the Kenyan and East African markets where traditionally they use agents in Europe, Asia and the US.”If all the relevant pieces fall into place, easily picking up cargo in Europe and the like for transhipped delivery into Nairobi, Aero Africa intends to bring its hub-and-spoke ideals for East Africa to fruition.South Sudan, the eastern DRC, Rwanda, Uganda and northern Tanzania – all are on Aero Africa’s Kenyan radar.Of course there were challenges out there, he explained, which was why the eastern service would have a sound southern ally.“There are things like trucking delays, limited carriers, and an over-reliance on agents, but it’s all about spending time up there and seeing what we can do from their specific perspective,” said Da Costa, who has a solid operator database from a 15-year clearing business stint up in Kenya.Moreover, the carrier service deal that Aero Africa recently struck with FitsAir, Sri Lanka’s biggest independent airline, has afforded the neutral consolidator a handy interline choice of some 150 associated carriers.“If we can do it in South Africa, be independent and virtual and really neutral through significant partnerships with multi-route aircraft owners like FitsAir, we can do it in Kenya.”As a matter of fact, Aero Africa already had a general services agreement partner tied up, Da Costa said, with sure prospects of securing large block-space allocations for access to Indian Ocean destinations off the East African coast.
