Jeff LeeHello and welcome to this episode of cargo facts connect, the podcast of cargo facts, the newsletter of record for the air cargo and freighter aircraft industries for over 40 years. I’m Jeff Lee, editor of cargo facts and it’s Friday, the twenty seventh of September. Africa added its third 737-800BCF operator late last year, with TAAG Angola Airlines looking to grow its cargo business. The carrier also appointed David Ambridge as its director of cargo and mail, and this week we hear from Ambridge as he talks to my colleague Robert Luke about TAAG’s strategy and the prospects of the African market.
Robert LukeDavid, thank you. And then we appreciate having you here today with us.
David AmbridgeRobert good afternoon. It’s nice to be here, thank you.
Robert LukeTell us a little bit about yourself and your experience and background and how you came to be the director of Cargo Mail for tag Angola.
David AmbridgeWell, look, I’m. I’m gonna cut this quite short, but, but my career in air cargo started in 1972. Which is a long, long, long time ago and I’m still doing it. I was the the general manager at in in Thailand for Bangkok flight services up until about 2017 or so I did 11 years with those folks. 11 Very happy years. And then I I took some time out and and thought enough was enough at that time. I did some consultancy here and there and then COVID of course struck and we went through that that that kind of problem and then literally sitting at home one day and got contacted by a headhunter. Would I be interested in this position in in Luanda and I thought. Well, OK, that sounds quite interesting. So so here we are, ten months later. Trying to trying to get the the airline, the cargo division of the airline. Where I believe it needs to be and and to realize the untapped potential that there is in Africa for air freight. It’s such a such a small market in global terms. Kind of makes me wonder. Wonder why sometimes when you know the population is is so large? Many different countries within Africa, of course, which is one of the one of the issues that we face, but but the potential here is, is massive, Robert and my job here for the next couple of years will be to get tag in a position that we can we can capitalize on that potential. You know my my background really is in in companies like Flying Tigers and FedEx. So so I’m used to seeing a lot of aeroplanes and we only have one freighter at the moment. The freighter had not flown prior to my arrival in in November of last year but we we got it up in the air pretty quickly and It’s doing nicely for us now. We, we we fly. Four times a week with the aeroplane doesn’t sound a lot, but but there are some some some obstacles that that we’re overcoming. But we’ve actually created what I what I like to call a niche market now for this aeroplane and that and that’s really where I see tag cargo. I see us being a niche carrier. We’re not Ethiopian. We don’t want to be and we never will be. So so we’ve when we do something, we’ve got to do it really well and we’ve got to do it on time. And and the customers need to learn to really trust us that we will do that. And and again I think that goes back to my 11 years with FedEx that you do things on time. Otherwise, you know you you get yourself in big trouble. So so we’ve created this this North South corridor now in, in, in Africa from from Johannesburg in the South through Luanda to Lagos, up in the central West part of Africa. And then we come back through Brazzaville. Back to Luanda and then back down into to Johannesburg. So. So that’s building really nicely the, the, the traffic certainly never existed in tag before we did it and now we’re carrying good loads every week. The the plan for later this year is to add Nairobi over in the east part of Africa. I think that’s another market that we could do really well in. It’s about a four hour flight from from Luanda, so it’s, you know, well within the range of our aeroplane and there’s a lot of business in Kenya. So you know, I wanna get us over into the east part of of Africa because then that’s an easy bridge then into the Middle East. And India into the West Coast of India. So. So that’s the kind of things that are on on the horizon for us in the next few months. But hurdles that we face here are mostly regulatory. Customs authorities see themselves more as inspectors rather than facilitators. That that’s kind of unusual to me, having grown up in, in, in London, where probably less than 1% of cargo gets inspected and it’s probably a lot less than 1%. Here it’s almost 100%. So that’s, you know, that’s a really big change and that’s a really big obstacle that we need to start sitting down with customs and understanding why they do it and and where they feel the threats are and then seeing if they’re open to accept information electronically rather than via paper, and then we can give them advance manifests and an advance notice. And they can do maybe a little bit more of their risk assessment before the flight so that we can, we can try and get stuff moved around Africa quicker. Another obstacle we’ve got airport charges in Africa are, you know, they’re they’re pretty high. It probably costs more in a lot of African airports to land their aeroplane than it would do at Heathrow, and that you know, I have a bit of a problem trying to understand that. But you know, it is what it is. I think if if trade opened up and if the movement of people opened up in line with the African Single market. Then I think some of those charges could be reduced because there’d be more airplanes flying and more people flying. So, so there’s some of that. You know, there’s some of the some of the issues I guess that we need to overcome.
Robert LukeUnderstood. So you’ve opened up some questions that I was saving for later, but we’re just gonna get right into them right now. So from your perspective, what are some of the, Well, some of the challenges you touched base on, but what are some of the additional challenges in regards to establishing a more transparent bilateral agreement under the the single the single traffic rights that you spoke of, because as I as I did a little research, you know the declaration of Mbain and the Yama Secret of Declaration we’re talking about late 80s, when those came into existence.
David AmbridgeYeah. Absolutely.
Robert LukeAnd there’s only been what, 5 transactions since they officially adopted it back in 2002? So how do we, how has the airlines together throughout all the different states of Africa, come to unite to encourage the governments to be more cooperative? And how close are we to actually seeing that become a reality?
David AmbridgeWell, I think the the you know the single air market, it’s got SA ATM I. Can’t remember all the five letters, but it’s it’s a single market and I I believe and I could be wrong and correct me if I am, it’s either 25 or 28 countries in Africa have signed up for it. It will definitely be an item on the agenda if even if it’s not on the agenda already. I will make sure it gets on the agenda because I believe that that that if we if we’re successful in opening up and even if we open, even if we only open it up with 10 countries, I think the other I think the other countries would see the growth so quickly that they would be keen to come and sign on and and some you know I I think in this industry we need pioneers desperately. We need pioneers and we need good leaders. And and and don’t have too many of those. We need people who are going to push the boundaries and breakdown the barriers and I’m a great believer in that because you know, I honestly and I do I live by this, for every problem there is a solution. We just might not have we just might not have thought of it yet. So. So we’ll find a solution to the single air market. We will. And whether it’s one year or five years, it will come. It will happen because it has to happen. The the population in Africa, 2 1/2 billion or whatever it is now. It it they will demand air travel, you know. The the the middle class and the younger generations across Africa are growing exponentially and and they want to see new things and they want to travel and they don’t. They don’t want to have to travel with 30 different visas in their passport to get around Africa. Can’t make any sense, it just can’t.
Robert LukeYes.
David AmbridgeSo. So I think if we can, if we can break down. Those kind of issues and and work towards the resolution, it has to be successful and and you know the biggest beneficiaries I hope would be African airlines, not the foreign carriers, the foreign carriers probably dominate most of the African business apart from Ethiopian Airlines. So you know we want to encourage I’m another believer in open skies in Africa for African airlines, I think that’s long overdue. And I think this is going to happen.
Robert LukeOK. So let me ask you this. Why is it from your perspective that you see the independent states of Africa more willing to establish bilateral agreements with foreign carriers before they start cooperating with neighboring countries?
David AmbridgeYeah, there’s a good that’s a really good question, Robert. And I’m and I’m far from qualified to be able to answer that. I think I think the foreign, I mean when you know, I think the foreign carriers are stronger with their lobbying. I think they’re they’re they’re possibly more mature in, in, in obtaining traffic rights and 5th and 6th freedom permissions and so I think that when a market opens up and let’s say you know, an Emirates want to come in with three or four flights a day to to South Africa, the authorities just say yes. And that’s it. And you know, there you are. You’ve got four wide bodies flying from Dubai to to Johannesburg every day. If they wanted to get into some other parts of Africa, they might have a slightly harder job. I mean, please don’t get me wrong. I mean, we can fly anywhere we want to in Africa. But yes, to do it on a regular basis, we need to have an air services agreement and we need to agree on the traffic rights. Most of those are done fairly quickly. Some some can be a little troublesome. But but it could be a lot easier, Robert, that that’s my point.
Robert LukeSeeing that Ethiopian Airlines and I would say Qatar are major investors in Africa recently. Would tag welcome the opportunity to establish an agreement with a more established carrier to help facilitate your cargo strategy. As you look to expand into international territories.
David AmbridgeWe’re we’re we’re actively signing inter lines with with many different carriers. I’m always very careful who I want to partner with. You know, I want to partner with people that complement us and not come and not compete with us. Not, you know, competition is great, but you know partner partnering with someone. You know, I’m looking at carriers. Definitely outside of Africa. I’m looking at India, Southeast Asia and into China. Those kind of partners. East Africa looking at partnerships with, with with a carrier there in East Africa. Where else are we looking? Let me think now. Us, of course. We’re looking at partnering with a couple of airlines from the US. So really, you know the places where I know we’re not going to fly to in the next two years. Then I would like to get an interline or an spa with with a carrier from there. If they’ve got business coming into central, southern West Africa. And that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to grow the network in the short term. You know we’ve got our 4 787s arriving next year, 2025. That’s going to be a a big boost for us, you know, the 787 is another good cargo aeroplane.
Robert LukeCorrect.
David AmbridgeNot not quite as good as the 777300, but it’s, but it’s pretty good and so having those four new wide bodies with the five that we’ve got already, I see next year as a huge opportunity for tag.
Robert LukeSo on your dedicated freighter side, and I know you’re just basically giving birth to that side of it, as you look forward are there any other freighter types that you would consider as you look at your cargo operations five years down the road? Ten years down the road. 15 years down the road?
David AmbridgeHaving having grown up with Boeing 747 freighters. For me, personally, I’m gonna try and stick with Boeing, but that’s just me, you know. I think I think our next airplane would be a 767-300. That 767 takes us from 20 tons to 60 tons. It also allows us to fly directly to the Middle East directly to India directly to South America, directly to South East Asia. So you can see how the world opens up just with with that with that 767. I think the 767 is certainly the next one that I’m personally looking at. And then after that one day will be a would be a 777.
Robert LukeAnd on that note, I will say thank you very much for joining me today.
David AmbridgeThank you, Robert.
Robert LukeWe appreciate having you here today with us.
Jeff LeeThat was TAAG’s Director of Cargo and Mail David Ambridge speaking with my colleague Robert Luke, senior associate editor of Cargo Facts. And that’s all the time we have today. For more coverage of the freighter aircraft market, visit cargo facts.com. Thank you very much for tuning in, and join us again next time.
