DHL invests in aircraft and facilities for West Africa
Global giant DHL has made big moves to meet the increasing demand coming from West Africa, investing in both facility and air infrastructure.
The investment includes the launch of three new aircraft, a Boeing 757 and two ATR72s and the founding of an airside facility in Dakar, Senegal.
Oliver Facey, Vice President of Operations for DHL Express Sub-Saharan Africa, said: “Over the last few years, we’ve increasingly seen the importance of up scaling our facilities in the various regions within the continent.
“As multinationals turn to Africa, and as smaller African enterprises look to trade cross-border, regions like West Africa need increased infrastructure and capacity to cope with the rising demand for the transportation of goods across these markets.”
The facility will improve service quality, enable the handling of material destined for Senegal and transit material through Dakar.
“We have expanded our operation at Dakar as a natural location for feeding in traffic to West Africa,” added Facey.
“The Dakar facility receives a new return flight from Brussels and it will be serviced once a week by a Boeing 757 200 SF with a capacity of more than 25 tons.”
The new 7 ton-capacity ATR 72’s will connect Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Mauritania.
Facey said: "These investments mean that we can offer increased dedicated capacity in West Africa and generally have less dependency on limited commercial airlines uplift for volumes along the west coast of Africa.
“This increased capacity supports both DHL’s express and freight products, especially perishable goods, which has always been one of the easier ways for African businesses to gain access to European markets and now DHL can better support players in this market.”
