Panalpina Adds Second Vessel to Combined Air/Sea Service in West Africa

Air Sea Broker West Africa Division, a wholly owned subsidiary of the
Panalpina Group, has enhanced its combined air/sea freight service to
and from stations in West Africa by adding new ports in Angola, Camero
on and Equatorial Guinea and increasing its capacity on services to Co
ngo and Gabon.
The Panalpina Group, which provides forwarding and logistics services
in 65 countries, has expanded its combined air/sea African Star servic
e to and from stations in West Africa by adding a second weekly vessel
calling at ports and offshore installations along the coast.
Through Panalpina's global network, freight is forwarded on a daily ba
sis by air and truck from points of origin all over the globe to Panal
pina/SwissGlobalCargo's European airfreight hub in Luxembourg. From he
re the weekly scheduled airfreight charters operated by SwissGlobalCar
go carry the cargo to the international airport on the island of Sao T
ome where it is transferred in bond, under customs supervision, to the
port and then loaded onto two dedicated vessels fully controlled by A
ir Sea Broker. The shipments are then delivered direct to marine shore
base operations and offshore rigs and installations along the coast.
The two vessels operate a parallel weekly schedule out of Sao Tome off
ering a combined import and export capacity of over 150 tons per week,
a substantial increase on the 60 tons previously available.
"The introduction of a second vessel on our combined air/sea freight s
ervice, which we inaugurated in August and currently operate on a tria
l basis, has enabled us to add new ports of call in Angola, Cameroon a
nd Equatorial Guinea", says Mark Banfield, Managing Director of Air Se
a Broker West Africa Division. "Moreover, we offer increased capacity
and shorter transit times to destinations in Angola, Cameroon, Congo a
nd Gabon. The African Star service is a unique combined air/sea servic
e, designed specifically to meet the extremely demanding airfreight de
livery requirements of oil and energy companies operating along the co
ast of West Africa. This integrated door-to-door service eliminates th
e bottlenecks and long customs delays that occur when cargo is shipped
by conventional methods. It has been in operation for nine years now
and has proven to be the most reliable and efficient means of transpor
ting critical air shipments into and out of the dynamic West African t
rade."