Virgin Atlantic Cargo has increased support for South Africa’s air cargo market with a second daily service between London and Johannesburg.

The double daily Boeing 787-9 flights will also benefit customers in the US who will have access to additional cargo capacity to and from South Africa via London.

Virgin says it is seeing strong demand to and from South Africa, with US-South Africa volumes growing eight per cent this year, and traffic from Johannesburg up two per cent thanks to regular shipments of perishables as well as car parts, computer components, mining equipment and personal effects.

Exports from the UK to South Africa include fish and foodstuffs, pharmaceuticals, books and magazines, agricultural spares, electrical components and automotive parts.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo managing director, Dominic Kennedy says: “We are experiencing a high level of demand for capacity to and from South Africa, so the launch of a second daily service will go some way to providing the extra space our customers in the UK, US and South Africa need.

“On October 28, our first day of double daily services, both flights operated with full payloads totalling 34 tonnes and we expect this to continue given the broad range of goods moving to and from Johannesburg. This is one of our best-ever years on the route, which Virgin has now served for over 22 years.”