Zurich, 2012-11-28 — /travelprnews.com/ — Swissport International, the world’s leading provider of ground services to the aviation sector, has signed an agreement with new African lowcost carrier fastjet under which it will provide ground services throughout the airline’s network.
fastjet, Africa’s first pan-continental low-cost carrier (LCC), is set to launch operations later this month in Tanzania’s domestic market, with flights from its Dar Es Salaam base to Kilimanjaro and Mwanza, and quickly expand its route network, flying the continent of Africa from north to south and east to west over the next few years. Through an exclusive partnership agreement Swissport will supply a variety of airport services, be responsible for service delivery and support supply chain growth throughout the fastjet network.
Juan Jose Andres Alvez, Swissport’s Executive Vice President of Ground Handling for Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa, commented: “Swissport has a huge amount of experience in LCC handling in Europe and we look forward to assisting fastjet in building up this model in Africa, supported by our knowledge and processes. This partnership includes all of the logistics challenges involved in setting up a network of ground handling operations and management systems, representing a new type of relationship between service provider and airline and offering a great opportunity for Swissport to continue to build its network in Africa in partnership with fastjet.”
fastjet Chief Executive Officer Ed Winter commented: “Swissport has a world-leading reputation and track record for providing high quality ground services to airlines around the world. fastjet is creating a pan-continental African airline offering international standards of safety, quality, security and reliability and it is therefore essential for us to have a handling partner that gives these qualities top priority and one that also matches our ambitious growth plans for Africa.”
Swissport International Ltd. provides ground services for around 116 million passengers and 3.5 million tonnes of cargo a year (the latter using 105 warehouses with a total floor area of over 420,000 square metres) on behalf of some 650 client-companies in the aviation sector. With a workforce of around 39,000 personnel, Swissport is active at 195 stations in 38 countries on five continents, and generated consolidated operating revenue of approximately CHF 2.0 billion. www.swissport.com
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Swissport agrees pan-Africa handling partnership with fastjet