LUSAKA (The Business Telegraph) – Zambia’s celebrated locally owned airline Proflight Zambia has yet again penetrated an untapped niche after augmenting it’s passenger Jetstream 41 aircraft to ferry cargo between Lusaka and Johannesburg. In times when disease pandemic has weighed in on airline business, the local airline is ahead of the curve absorbing cargo demand between Zambia and South Africa which ideally would be serviced by airlines such as South African Airways which has not taken to the sky for 5months now as it grapples with finding and solvency concerns. Proflight will be the only local airline in the cargo ferrying space currently.
Only until the month of September, Zambia has minimal to no international flights save DHL aircrafts ferrying cargo which Proflight has managed to penetrate after augmenting its passenger Jetstream-41 through removal of seats replaced with nets to accommodate cargo ferried during night time between Lusaka and Johannesburg. Proflight see demand growing and as such will allocate even bigger flights for widened capacity should volumes expand.
The dedicated cargo flights commenced last week and are operating every Tuesday and Thursday throughout September. Flights depart Zambia’s capital at 19:30 and depart South Africa’s commercial capital at 10 minutes to midnight.
“Proflight Zambia has invested in having cargo nets made and effective tie-downs procured to ensure that cargo can be safely secured in the cabin. All seats on the aircrafts have been removed allowing us to carry all types of cargo including live animals, perishables, and so on,” said Director Flight Operations Captain Josias Walubita.
“At the moment we have scheduled the Jetstream 41 to fly cargo, and we will increase to the CRJ if demand goes up. There are restrictions on sizes of the aircraft in terms of the dimensions of the cabin and baggage hold and we are observing and taking safety precautions as the aircraft are initially passenger aircraft which will be used for cargo,” he added.
All cargo bookings and handling are undertaken through BidAir Cargo, a leading cargo airline providing express airport-to-airport solutions and related services to the courier and express logistics industry.
The Kwacha Arbitrageur