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MoU signed by South African and German airport companies

27th March 2015

By: Keith Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with German company Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding. The MoU was signed at the recent Air Cargo Africa 2015 conference, held next to OR Tambo International Airport. “This has been two years in the making,” said the local company’s COO, Tebogo Mekgoe, at the signing ceremony. “In fact, we started talking about it at this venue, Air Cargo Africa 2013. As a company, from a cargo perspective, we’re not as mature as we should be.”

“This cooperation agreement . . . enables Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding, on behalf of Leipzig/Halle International Airport, Europe’s fifth-largest cargo airport, to achieve a partnership in Africa for the first time,” affirmed company CEO Markus Kopp at the event. “South Africa has been the most important trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa for Germany for years . . . Despite our achievements, we are continuously trying to improve our international services. “OR Tambo [International] complements our existing network . . . Both partners will benefit from this [equally].

“The MoU is between ACSA and the Mitteldeutsche group, but we’re focusing on OR Tambo International,” Mekgoe told Engineering News. “In terms of tonnage, if you look at the whole of the company’s network of nine airports, we handle about 500 000 t [of cargo annually]. If you look at OR Tambo International, it’s about 398 000 t: about 80% of the total.”

ACSA, which is the largest airport operator on the African continent, wants to increase the amount of air cargo it handles to one-million tons by around 2023/24. Mitteldeutsche wants to add customers that link Europe with Southern Africa. The German group already has four partner cargo airports in Asia (two in China) and two more in North America.

“There’s obviously certain networks Kopp’s group is exposed to,” added Mekgoe. “And we have knowledge of networks in the southern hemisphere. Sharing this knowledge [and] coordinating [our activities] to provide better services is what we hope to get: to provide better services to our customers.”

“Cultures are different around the globe. We are dependent on our partners to understand what is going on in China, in Africa,” Kopp told Engineering News. “It had high value for us to sign the MoU with ACSA. I am sure we can exchange knowledge about best practices, about cargo flows. We’re very happy we signed this MoU.”

Increaseing the amount of airfreight it handles has consequences for the ACSA’s cargo facility at OR Tambo International. Options are now being considered, one of which would be the construction of totally new facilities at the site. “We’re certainly going to refurbish our existing facilities. These have been well maintained, but not yet refurbished,” said Mekgoe. “The evaluation of the options is likely to take most of this year. We should be able to propose options by late in the calendar year and present them to the board.”

A recent Airbus forecast recognised OR Tambo International as the only megacity airport in Africa, with more than 50 000 daily long-haul passengers on flights carrying cargo in their aircraft bellies forecast to be a reality by 2032. “For us, OR Tambo International is already, cargowise, the busiest airport on the continent,” he affirmed. “We don’t take that status for granted. This MoU is proof that we don’t take it for granted. We can do better.”

In addition to Liepzig/Halle, the Mitteldeutsche group also includes Dresden International Airport. Liepzig/Halle, Germany’s number two cargo airport, handled about 911 000 t of airfreight last year. It focuses on dedicated airfreight aircraft and operations, and not on cargo carried by airliners. (The airport does handle airliners, and sees 2.4-million passengers a year.) It is the European hub for DHL Worldwide Express and the home base of major airfreight operator Aerologic (a 50:50 joint venture between Lufthansa Cargo and DHL, with a fleet of eight Boeing 777F freighters) and very heavy lift specialist company Ruslan Salis (a Russian-Ukrainian joint venture which operates two giant Antonov An-124 airlifters).

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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