Cargolux eyes Uganda and Mozambique Markets
Luxembourg based Cargo Haulier Cargolux Airlines has indicated it might be looking into tapping from the increased activity in the oil and gas sector in East Africa with focus on two countries Uganda and Mozambique.
The two markets currently in the development phase expect extra cargo with Uganda already upgrading facilities such as airports and recently received proposals for the Kabaale international airport to facilitate the movement of materials and manpower for the development of the oil sector in Hoima District, and the Western Uganda region in general.
According to Cargolux regional director for Africa Jonathan Clark the airline sees an obvious gap in East Africa with traffic set to pick up with the new oil and gas discoveries.
“We want to diversify a little bit more into East Africa, you can see we are a little bit weak in east Africa. Also Mozambique is quite interesting for us, because there is a lot of oil and gas, particularly LNG, and when that starts to pick up in the next few years I think Mozambique will become quite busy,” Clark is quoted by Air Cargo News.
Activity in Uganda is expected to pick up especially once a master plan for the development of the petrochemical industrial park in Hoima, Uganda is completed which will include a refinery, a crude oil export hub, an international Airport, logistics systems and utilities. Other petrochemical industries will also have an integrated infrastructure corridor which will accommodate a pipeline, a highway, Power Transmission and ICT infrastructure cable systems.
Mozambique on the other hand expects construction of subsea wells, pipelines, a floating production facility FLNG (Floating Liquefied Natural Gas), LNG plants once development works commences. Various players have indicated construction will commence soon with the approval of an investment plan by Eni and the signing of an agreement with BP for the sale of the entire volumes of LNG produced by the FNLG Coral South, for a period of over twenty years. Onshore there is the ongoing exploration, development and production as well as the construction of a gas pipeline to South Africa to fuel gas powered energy plants.
The airline currently has operations in Nairobi operating from the Jomo Kenyatta international airport where it is involved in transportation of horticulture one of Kenya’s top foreign exchange earners. Kenya remains amongst in top routes with other regions in Africa having seen less traffic with South Africa witnessing a slow down in its economy while in West Africa the company has been forced to combine flights due to low traffic in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Kinshasa and Brazzaville.
Cargolux all-cargo airline has a modern and efficient fleet composed of 14 Boeing 747-8 freighters and 12 Boeing 747-400 freighters. The Cargolux worldwide network covers 90 destinations, some 70 of which are served on scheduled all-cargo flights.