News / African domestic air cargo capacity finally goes digital

Photo - Jambojet

Global forwarders are finally getting a clear line of sight into African domestic cargo, with real‑time digital access to rates and capacity that has been largely out of reach.

Recently, Kenyan carrier Jambojet became the first regional airline on the continent to place its local network on WebCargo by Freightos, a development that could reshape how freight moves beyond Africa’s major hubs.

The move exposes a long‑standing structural gap: forwarders cannot book what they cannot see, and for years, most domestic and intra‑African capacity has been effectively invisible to the global market.

Jambojet’s Nairobi‑centred network is now digitally bookable for the first time, giving forwarders direct visibility of domestic connections and allowing long‑haul shipments to link straight through to secondary cities.

The partnership may be small, but the potential impact is much larger; if other regional carriers follow, it could signal a shift in how African domestic uplift is accessed, priced, and connected to global cargo flows.

Toby Hillier, senior business development manager for airline solutions at Freightos, told The Loadstar demand for access to these domestic markets has always existed but has been constrained by the lack of digital visibility.

“The demand has always been pretty strong to those markets,” he said, pointing to ecommerce growth and strengthening African economies as key drivers. Forwarders, he added, increasingly want more reliable access to those markets, to be able to connect the regional cities of Africa to the long-haul networks.

Toby Hillier

Until now, that connection has been largely manual. Cargo arriving in Nairobi typically sits in a warehouse for days before being re‑billed and transferred to a regional carrier. Mr Hillier described this process as inefficient and opaque, noting that forwarders want the ability to move shipments from point A to point C on a single bill trackable in one place.

Digital interlining, he argues, removes the visibility gap that has long discouraged long‑haul carriers from offering through‑services into smaller African markets.

The tradelanes most likely to benefit first are already clear. Mr Hillier highlighted “the ecommerce market out of China” as a major growth driver, alongside dry pharmaceuticals from India, Puerto Rico, and Ireland. These flows typically enter Africa through a handful of major gateways before being broken down and redistributed.

Digital interlining could make that whole process much smoother and cut down the need for cargo to be broken down and re‑handled at big hubs. And as manufacturing grows across Africa, he expects more traffic coming in from South-east Asia too.

The timing of this shift is not accidental. WebCargo’s digital interline capability has existed for years, but the platform lacked the critical mass of participating airlines needed to make it viable.

“We’re starting to reach a critical mass in terms of airlines participating in digital marketplaces,” Mr Hillier said. Early adopters were mostly European flag-carriers that did not interline with one another, followed by Middle East carriers with selective partnerships. Only now, with a more diverse mix of airlines online, does digital interlining become commercially meaningful.

Technical barriers, he stressed, are not Africa‑specific. Most African carriers use the same cargo management systems as airlines elsewhere, and the limitations, particularly around interline pricing and airline‑to‑airline customer relationships, are global.

Mr Hiller reckons the bigger challenge is a commercial one. Large network carriers prefer simplicity, especially when it comes to settlement. However, many smaller African operators are not members of the IATA Clearing House, creating friction for carriers that want predictable financial processes.

“The big guys maybe don’t want to play with the small guys,” Mr Hillier noted. WebCargo hopes to ease that by offering tools to support financial flows between airlines.

Despite these hurdles, Mr Hiller believes Africa could adopt digital interlining faster than expected. The need for visibility into secondary cities is acute, and global carriers have historically been reluctant to send cargo beyond major hubs due to tracking concerns.

“Having a digitised end‑to‑end booking process and then visibility over the tracking of that shipment is really going to be a key influencer,” he said. In his view, the systems African carriers already use are capable, but they simply haven’t prioritised digital distribution.

Success will be measured by more than booking volumes. Mr Hillier said WebCargo would also track network expansion, new trade corridors, and improvements in operational handovers between carriers, and he sees potential for entirely new flows emerging as visibility increases.

He added: “Being able to provide reporting to the market that says, you know, we’re now seeing regular flows of business from Alaska into Mozambique, and from Zambia into Bolivia. No one has those metrics today.”

Forwarder adoption is already strong in Kenya and South Africa, but airline participation remains low. Jambojet is the first African carrier live on the platform, with others in the integration phase.

Whether this marks the beginning of a broader trend will depend on how quickly regional airlines embrace digital visibility, and whether global carriers trust the new interline pathways enough to use them.