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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

► CAPE VERDE ISLANDS: BinterCanarias cargo wing looks to increase its African market presence.

BinterSwift, the cargo division of Canary Islands-based carrier, Binter Canarias (NT), has initiated a series of meetings with entrepreneurs from the Cape Verde Islands to better understand market demands as the airline seeks to improve its African market niche by providing more alternatives for the movement of cargo from and via the Canaries to Africa and vice versa.

BinterSwift
BinterSwift (BinterCanarias)
The first of these meetings was aimed at Canarian entrepreneurs based in Cape Verde and was organized in collaboration with The Canary Island Public Company for Economic Development (PROEXCA) and the Chamber of Commerce of Gran Canaria. The visit was organized in two sessions, the first with a delegation from the Chamber of Commerce of Gran Canaria in Cape Verde, to disseminate information about BinterSwift, and the second, at the cultural institute Casa de Canarias, for personal one-on-one type interviews with the various companies involved.

Both occasions were used to present some of BinterSwift's innovations such as express document delivery, in collaboration with Red Canarias Air Services, effective March 1, and a deal with Spanish logistics specialists SEUR and CanaryFeeder to cooperate in the joint marketing of their services in Africa.

Canary Feeder uses the port of Las Palmas as a hub to connect with Laayoune (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic), Dakhla (Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic), Nouadhibou and Nouakchott.
BinterSwift manager, Jose Luis Dominguez Becerra, believes that "the future of service to between Europe and Africa lies in the use of the Canaries as a hub" adding that "to full utilize available cargo space, the best option is to use the Canary Islands as a platform for shipping between Europe and the United States. "
The next meeting will be held in April and will focus on local Cape Verdian companies in order to further analyze the market and to propose improvements to Binter's air freight service over the course of 2013.