In search of markets that had escaped the savage yield declines of Asia in the early months of last year, carriers – in particular full freighter operators – identified Africa as a relative haven of stability.

“Africa has been pretty good over the last year, but if you look at the central part, the perishables part was affected by weather last year so that was an added challenge,” says Ram Menen, Emirates SkyCargo senior vice president.

“We also reduced our freighters because every man and his dog was getting into that market because of the crisis,” he adds.

From Asia came Shenzhen-based Jade Cargo Airlines starting services to Nigeria in mid-April, flying twice a week from Shanghai via Shenzhen, Chennai and Sharjah to Lagos, returning to China via Sharjah. Singapore Airlines Cargo adding Johannesburg to its African footprint and signing an interline partnership with Ethiopian Airlines.

US passenger carriers brought belly capacity with new flights to Africa, one of which was Delta, which mounted fourflights a week from Atlanta to Dakar.

European and Middle Eastern carriers also upped their flights to Africa.

Chasing the kilo
“It was pretty much a case of ‘chasing the kilo,” says Menen. “In the initial part of the crisis the part of the market that really got hit hard was China. A lot of people had a lot of capacity into China, so Africa and South America were the emerging markets that people put their assets to keep them deployed.

“It did bring the markets down, the yields suffered from the competitive pressure, but as the China market started picking up the capacity started disappearing again from those markets.

For Emirates a large part of their cargo business out of Africa is in the passenger bellies, although SkyCargo does operate freighters into Eldoret and Nairobi in Kenya, as well as Lagos, Nigeria.

To say Emirates has a substantial presence in Africa sounds like a bit of understatement when looking at the carrier’s network. This includes five daily flights into South Africa, three of which go to Johannesburg, along with Capetown and Durban. Other African destinations include Kigali (Rawanda), Entebe (Uganda), Lagos (Nigeria), Nairobi and Eldorat (Kenya), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), Mauritius, Seychelles, Accra (Ghana), Abidjan (Ivor y Coast), Dakar (Senegal), Casablanca (Morocco), Tripoli (Libya) and Tunis (Tunisia).

Drivers of African cargo
Perhishables traffic out of central Africa is the mainstay for SkyCargo which along with South African traffic comprised of substantial supply chain related cargo – automotive, general cargo, industrial – form the bulk of its volumes.

The emerging cargo market for goods going into Africa especially central and western Africa, are largely infrastructure related, although pharmaceuticals are also growing, Menen says.

He notes the growing volume of infrastructure related cargo destined for the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, but also telecoms equipment. “When you see this type of infrastructure related cargo you know that there is a lot of activity going on.

“I’m pretty sure that over the coming years that is going to be a busy market for us,” he says, adding that with the heavy Chinese investment in Africa this will help pick up the pace.