Air Cargo Malawi Limited has said it has registered a 1,579 percent profit jump in the 2022-23 financial year from K24.3 million in 2021-22 year to K408 million.
Air Cargo Board Chairperson Felix Tandwe disclosed this in Lilongwe on Friday when the firm unveiled Thoko Unyolo as its new chief executive officer and Anold Chimwenje as its new director of operations.
According to Tandwe, 40 percent of the profit will be remitted to the government as a dividend.
“These figures tell a story about Air Cargo Malawi. We have had it tough in the past but we have now achieved what I would call a turn-around. As I earlier said, K408 million may not seem much but, as you will note, it is 1,650 percent more than the profit we made the preceding year, 2021-2022,” Tandwe said.
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The firm, however, lamented the absence of an Air Operators Certificate (AOC) which it says is affecting its operations.
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An AOC is the approval granted by a civil aviation authority (CAA) to an aircraft operator to allow it to use aircraft for commercial purposes.
Air Cargo was established in 1979 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air Malawi and operated using the Air Malawi’s International Air Transport Association (IATA) prefix all along and there was no problem.
However, problems came about after the liquidation of Air Malawi. Despite the liquidation of its parent company, ACM has continued to operate using the Air Malawi IATA prefix and without its own Air Operator’s Certificate.
Tandwe observed that the current scenario has brought about a number of challenges to Air Cargo.
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On her part, Unyolo said the client is at the heart of their business and that they would like to transform the client’s experience.
She said one of the things that would help them transform the client experience is the acquisition of AOC which will allow them to have an IATA prefix number.
“With this we will be able to fly to destinations that we can’t, take cargo for Malawi such as India and China, which are now the trading partners for Malawi.
“We are also looking at new business opportunities that are coming through. One of them is the upliftment of pharmaceutical products that has been approved for us this week. Initially we were not able to do that,” Unyolo said.
