Under the epidemic, the African air freight and logistics market accelerates its expansion

With the onset of the pandemic, Africa's airfreight and logistics markets are in expansion mode, attracting significant investment, writes Roger Hailey.

Invested in new and modified freighters, premium cargo drones, the integration of cargo ground handling and the shipping company's acquisition of a large specialist freight forwarder.

Kenya-based cargo airline Astral Aviation is expanding its fleet of 14 powerful freighters, including three Boeing B757-200Fs and two Airbus A320 P2Fs.

Astral founder and CEO Sanjeev Gadhia said: "The B757-200F will begin operations in June 2022 as we have experienced some unfortunate delays, in part due to Boeing's lack of timely multimode receiver (MMR) upgrades. support.

"In addition to Dubai and Tel Aviv, the B757-200F will also operate scheduled flights from Astral's Nairobi hub to Johannesburg, and plans to operate charter flights to and from China by the third quarter.

"The A320F will begin operations in mid-July 2022 and will operate on a charter basis on routes between Africa, the Middle East and South Asia in 2022. The second A320F will be delivered by the end of the year."

Ethiopian Airlines, Africa's largest airline, has ordered five B777 freighters from its current production line and has signed a memorandum of understanding with five more next-generation B777-8 freighters. All on top of the nine B777Fs it currently operates.

Astral is looking for future freighter additions, mostly from Airbus.

Ghadia said: “In addition to the two A320Fs purchased from Vaayu (the world’s first converted A320F), we have also signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to purchase two A321Fs and four A330s by 2023 -300F (delivered between 2024-5), while we are negotiating to buy two A330-200F (2023-4) and four B777-300ERF (2024-5).

"We are very impressed with the Airbus Freighter product and the support Airbus, EFW and ST Engineering gave in the introduction of the A320F, so we remain confident in acquiring more Airbus Freighters."

Ghadia added that while he remains confident in the African market, the plan is to continue positioning Astral as a global airline, as some freighters will operate "outside the African skies" to regions such as China, South Korea, India, the United Arab Emirates and Europe.