American Airlines Cargo has appointed HAE Group as its first African general sales agent from May 2016, covering Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Gabon, Nigeria, Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda and South Africa.

“We believe there is considerable potential for shipments to and from Africa,” said Richard Hartmann, regional sales manager of AA Cargo. “While we may be an offline carrier to the continent, we have identified a number of markets which have regular business to and from destinations across our global network and they can be best served by us having our own sales representation on the ground.”

According to Hartmann, who is a specialist in the African market and has more than 30 years of experience in the air freight industry, major traffic flows include the export of automotive parts, mining equipment, clothing and other commodities to Chicago, New York, Dallas and Atlanta.

“We understand the local markets in the countries where we have appointed HAE Group and while the majority of traffic will initially route over London Heathrow, the strength of our international network means that we will look to creatively exploit other options as we move forward and grow the business,” he said.

Mark Janse van Rensburg will be the station manager for HAE Group in Johannesburg, according to AA.