New AFRICAN Air Cargo Routes needed ?
 

We are a consulting firm in Washington DC providing ideas and advise to a new International African "Air Cargo" Start up. These USA investors have selected 767-200's Freighter as there aircraft of choice. (converted pax birds) They are looking at daily S.America - Africa /S. America -Dubai, Africa - Midwest USA runs. 65 tons x 3 times per week to start. Can anyone suggest some thoughts, ideas and opinions for a some suitable start up locations in West, Central or Eastern Africa ? A location that would provide ease of government regulations, minimal corruption, available facilities, local work force ? All of your thoughts and ideas would be fabulous. :ok:

How about Lagos:}

Nigeria......
 

Probably NOT :ugh:

Now for a slightly more serious suggestion
 

For West Africa - what about Accra. A while since Ghana Airways met its demise but there would be local aviation professionals still around who used to be employed by said company. A bit of training etc etc.

Ghana is very civilised and seems to suffer far less from the sort of corruption evident in many other West African countries.

They have a CAA that is quite professional (or appeared to be in my short dealings with them during an audit). ATC is a delight and so operations within their area are a quantum leap in regard to safety compared to many other West African countries (i.e. Nigeria)

They have a nice long runway which would easily permit max range/weight operations in a 767 when uncontaminated. (Beware the rainy seasons). The airport facilities are good for the area.

Geographically Accra is well placed for the destinations you intend.

Just to add
 

Importantly Ghana is politically stable with no real problems in 'law and order' etc. No terrorist issues that I am aware of.

A good idea is always to go where the money is but most importantly where the supply is low and demand high. For the first factor, while trying to deal with stability one could go to SSG, DLA, LBV, LAD. But you also have to consider the already existing supply. E.g. SSG and LAD have already direct connections to the US. So you naturally have to consider where there are no direct (or even one stopover) connections to places where supplies from the US (i.e. US customers or companies) are needed.

So without much research I would say:
-Lusaka - copper mining activities, few 1st world connections, stable country, sufficient facilities
-Freetown or Conakry - oil explorations, few 1st world connections, not very stable countries, not ideal facilities
-Entebbe - sufficient 1st world connections, but no direct to the US, rather stable country, established facilities (if they are out of fuel Nairobi is 1 hour away), oil explorations starting, local hub to east DRC and South Sudan (i.e. many NGOs and oil) + on the way back one could load fresh Nile Perch

Gbe best place

my vote goes to ...
 

Ghana, major investment in airport infrastructure, huge new ramps being finished as we speak .. stable, rapidly expanding economy.

So these investors have decided on an aircraft type and flight frequency before assessing where the market is and what volume of demand there is?

They decide upon a flight schedule without first securing traffic rights? The destinations and hubs are decided after the flight schedule?

Then they retain a consulting firm that does its "research" on an internet forum?

Might get into this consulting lurk myself.............! :D

An important thing to remember is that you may well easily fill the aircraft inbound to to Africa but chances are it will fly out empty. Factor that into your costing!

Chimbu Warrior,

My thoughts exactly. Maybe another opportunity to slag off as to which are the good and bad countries.

Consulting firm explained:

http://dilbert.com/dyn/str_strip/000...2857.strip.gif

(If that image doesn't work, go to: Con Insult on Dilbert.com )

Seriously, asking pprune for business advice? And then selling the said "advices" to a paying customer? how con-insult is that! :}

First things First
 

Chimba Warrior is on track. Market research coupled with the aircraft limitations or a must - then start with the wish list. B767-200F is the wrong aircraft for a starter. Note the yield out of SAMEC will have to be sufficient to contribute to the return leg. SAMEC to West Africa prime markets will be PHC / LOS / LAD / SSG. However these destinations are useless for the return leg. You will have to bounce the aircraft back via ACC or DKR for return Fish & Veggies. There is nothing else. If you wanted to go across to Middle East after offload West Coast. Again only veggies a fish. DXB back via Africa to Mid West US ? No idea.

Start with the right aircraft. B747F-BCF.

I smell a under graduate doing a logistics thesis ? If not. God help your investors.

AirCapital Are You Serious?
 

Are you really serious? A consultant seeking most primary of information from this forum? If you are real then it seems you simply wanted to thread a discussion going. Good luck!

I should expect any Washington-based consulting firm to have an adequate command of grammar and spelling, at the very least for the language in which they wish to provide said consulting services.

Might want to start there old son. :cool:

The main cargo hubs in West Africa are Lagos and Lome, Togo. AfricaWestCargo...AFRICA WEST CARGO?
is the company out of Lome. Last I heard they replaced their two DC-9s with two 767s to distribute the cargo locally throughout West Africa.

In NBO, Astral Aviation handles a lot of the local cargo for Eastern Africa.

Not sure about cargo for Northern/Southern Africa.

Lagos has a lot of inbound cargo , but very small cargo ramp , and also problems at the airport with infrastructure , I agree also about Nairobi , but Air Ghana are about to start a cargo hub in Accra, with a warehouse facility on the airside cargo ramp, and with the oil and gas cargo now in that region , could be the best bet, also with the new infrastructure being built currently at the airport, Ghana is moving in the right direction:ok: