Workers prepare a consignment of avocados for export at the Eldoret International Airport. PHOTO | FILE
Aviation industry players have said the amount of cargo their customers are willing to ship by air is fast declining due to high freight charges.
Logistics firm Astral Aviation says many people tend to opt for water transport because of its lower charges than air shipment.
Astral chief executive Sanjeev Gadhia says a kilogramme of cargo ferried by air attracts $1.50 while the same quantity on water is charged $0.75 cents.
“We are seeing a trend where volumes of cargo transported by air have been dropping and this is mainly attributed to high cost charged on transport by airlines,” he said.
Official data released by Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicate that total cargo handled at the airports decreased by 5.9 per cent in 2015, from 279,000 to 263,000 metric tonnes the previous year.
Mr Gadhia, however, says the volume of perishable exports has been growing by eight to 10 per cent, increasing demand for freight services.
“We have noticed a trend where perishable goods have been going up by about 10 per cent annually,” he said at the recent Modern Airports conference in Nairobi.
The KNBS data show that vegetable exports stood at Sh19.6 billion up from Sh16.7 billion in the previous year.
The impressive performance was due to expanded market after Kenya met most of the stringent measures set by European Union that had affected sales of horticultural produce to the key export destination.
The growth was also pushed by increase in export volume which rose from 40,000 tonnes in 2015 to 55,000 tonnes last year between January and October. “In 2015 stringent market access restrictions were set by European countries and this affected the volume of produce that we exported,” said Jane Ngige, chief executive at Kenya Flower Council in an earlier interview.
Astral increased its flight frequency in the region in 2015 following rising demand for air freight and a reduction in some of the local routes.
The firm increased trips to Juba and Mogadishu and is servicing Hargeisa and Djibouti from Mogadishu.
The logistics firm now flies to Juba three times a week to cater for the increasing cargo volume, capitalising on the low number of airlines flying to the region due to political instability.
Mr Gadhia, however, wants the government to relax the 2006 rule that compels all aircraft from Mogadishu to make a stopover in Wajir for security checks.
While direct flights from the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport to Mogadishu take about one hour and 20 minutes, the return leg takes nearly two-and-half hours, with the screening stretching it by an hour.
The security checks at Wajir airport, conducted by the Kenya Police and Kenya Air Force, involves unloading and scanning all luggage, frisking passengers and other rigorous immigration procedures.
Kenya Civil Aviation Authority director-general Gilbert Kibe acknowledged concerns raised by the stakeholders, but insisted that the checks are necessary for the mutual benefit to the two neighbours due to the security threat Somalia-based Al-Shabaab terrorist group poses.
“Wajir is a buffer zone used for vetting operators and passengers. This will continue until the government’s security high command states otherwise,” he said.
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