SA, German airports companies sign MoU
The Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with German company Mitteldeutsche Airport Holding. The MoU was signed at the Air Cargo Africa 2015 conference, next to OR Tambo International Airport.
"This has been two years in the making," said ACSA 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 complements our existing network. ... Both partners will benefit from this to an equal degree."
"The MoU is between ACSA and the Mitteldeutsche group, but we're focusing on OR Tambo," Mekgoe told Engineering News Online. "In terms of tonnage, if you look at the whole of the ACSA group, nine airports, we handle about 500 000 t [of cargo annually]. If you look at OR Tambo, it's about 398 000 t: about 80% of the total."
ACSA wants to expand the amount of air cargo it handles to one-million tons by around 2023/2024. Mitteldeutsche wants to add customers who 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 Markus' group is exposed to," added Mekgoe. "And we have knowledge of networks in the southern hemisphere. Sharing this knowledge, 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 Online. "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 that we signed this MoU."
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