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British Airways to Cancel Freight Services From Zambia to Europe

Posted on: Friday, 29 July 2005, 09:00 CDT

British Airways to cancel freight services from Zambia to Europe

LUSAKA, July 28 (Xinhua) -- British Airways (BA) has announced cancellation of its freight services from Zambia to Europe due to the exorbitant jet fuel price in the southern African country, local media reported Thursday.

BA country manager for Zambia Nilanthi Manatunga told press on Wednesday night that the abortion of services would take effect from August 9, noting that too high jet fuel price in Zambia made it no longer profitable for the airline to continue with the service.

And Zambia Export Growers Association chief executive Luke Mbewe said the withdrawal of flights from Zambia by BA would have repercussions on the growth of the non-traditional exports sector.

"We depend on air flights for almost 100 percent of all exports, " Mbewe was cited by The Post newspaper as saying. "If BA decides to withdraw from servicing the route to Zambia, that will cause us lots of problems because we will have no way of getting into the international market."

The export of flowers and vegetables to the European market currently earns Zambia about 60 million US dollars annually with about 12,000 people employed under the sector, according to Mbewe.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) assistant director for fuel services, Keith Carter, said Zambia was one of the most expensive locations in Africa for fuel.

Currently the price of jet fuel at Lusaka International Airport is 40 percent higher than that of South Africa, 38 percent higher than both Kenya and Tanzania, 27 percent than Namibia and 12 percent than Zimbabwe.

Carter said Zambia had to find solutions to bring the fuel price down because this would damage the economy of the country.

"If the airlines reduce operations, for passengers and freight services, this will affect your economy in both tourist tariff and freight services especially the business on the agricultural side, " said Carter.

Zambian Energy Minister George Mpombo said in an interview by the Zambia Daily Mail that the ministry was to hold a tripartite meeting with ministries of tourism and finance to look at the best ways to reduce jet fuel price.

He said the ministry had made several proposals which include the reduction of import duty on crude oil.

Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

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