‘red-eye‘ Courier Service Keeps Garden Route In Touch With Sa
Veteran aircraft used for vital daily courier services to the Garden Route are celebrating their third anniversary of freight operation this year.
The 34-year-old converted passenger aircraft provides the Garden Route with an overnight courier service.
Employed since 2005 as a subcontractor to South African Airways, Stars Away Aviation, with its pair of Hawker Siddeley 748 turboprop aircraft, carries light freight for all the major local courier companies delivering packages from Gauteng and the Free State to and from the George airport overnight.
Residents in the vicinity of the airport have become familiar with the reassuring drone of the “Red-Eye” flight leaving George at about 7.30pm every weekday and its return at about 5.30am the next day after completing the 2000km round trip.
Since Stars Away consolidated the service after taking it over three years ago, it has expanded its activities with an additional aircraft to offer a similar overnight service from Upington in the Northern Cape.
The company is now also servicing destinations in continental Africa with a DC9 jet freighter operating from OR Tambo Airport to Congo Brazzaville, Zimbabwe, Malawi and other locations on request.
According to co-pilot Glen Price, apart from the normal courier packages very unusual items need to be delivered occasionally.
“We carried two live cheetahs recently and frequently transport batches of 200 week-old ostrich chicks from Oudtshoorn.
“So far this year we have flown more than 4000 small ostriches on their way to being exported to Europe,” he said.
Captain Paul Seear said temperamental African weather posed the greatest challenge to flying.
“The George airport is not the easiest base to use ... In winter, we often experience quite severe wing icing over the Karoo and in summer we have to fly around the thunderstorms between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg. It keeps us on our toes and is all part of the challenge of flying.”
By Bob Hopkin
www.theherald.co.za
