Air Belgium has selected Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) to provide handling services for its newly launched services to South Africa.

WFS has been awarded a 3-year contract for twice-weekly Airbus A330 services operating on a Brussels-Johannesburg-Cape Town-Johannesburg-Brussels route, and is forecast to handle 1,600 tonnes of cargo per annum.

Flights started on Wednesday 14 September with high volumes of pharma expected to head to South Africa and perishables expected to head towards Europe.

Calling it an honour to be selected when it was up against strong competition, Malcolm Tonkin, Managing Director – South Africa at WFS, says, “It reflects the quality of our operations in Johannesburg and Cape Town, our specialist pharma handling capabilities, and investments to further improve our operations as well as the high service levels delivered by our people. We look forward to welcoming Air Belgium’s first flight.”

WFS is investing in its South African infrastructure by expanding warehouse space in Johannesburg by 1,500m2 and increasing cold-room and pharma handling capacity at the airport.