Category Archives: Aviation

Spoton Logistics has announced the opening of a modern logistics hub in Chakan, near Pune –Nasik highway – NH60 with total sq feet area of 120,000 sq feet and 38 route vehicles. Designed to play a major role in Spoton operations in the region, the hub equipped with 23 bays, automated dock levelers, forklifts and other modern material handling equipment, offers storage capacity in excess of 650 tonnes and cross-docking facilities for simultaneous loading and unloading operations. “Located near Chakan, right next to Moshi, the new hub will help provide faster connections from Chakan, Talegoan, Ranjangoan, Hinjewadi, PCMC and other emerging locations nearby, for both inbound and outbound movement,” said, Abhik Mitra, CEO, Spoton Logistics.

The quantum of cargo moved by dedicated freighters hardly increased, bringing down their share of the pie from 23 per cent in fiscal 2014 to 16 per cent in fiscal 2019. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, in the five fiscals through 2019, domestic airfreight demand in India logged a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8 per cent to 0.8 million tonnes. During this period, majority of the cargo was transported in aircraft belly. A 14 per cent CAGR spurt in domestic airline capacity provided adequate room to support this growth. However, the trend is likely to change in the next five years. CRISIL Research expects domestic air freight demand to touch 1.1 million tonnes, cruising at 7-9 per cent CAGR, in the next five fiscals.

Recently, Airports Authority of India (AAI) data has revealed that international freight movement from Pune airport, which is now left with just two international flights, was just nine metric tonnes (MT) in March as compared to 21MT in February and 39MT in January. National carrier Air India will now start using the transhipment facility at the city airport for international cargo exports. The move could give a much-needed boost to the dwindling export from the facility. “The airline had applied for using the transhipment facility at the Pune airport in connection with international cargo export, which though approved by customs, was still being analysed by the AAI.

SA Consultants & Forwarders has launched Logycode, an e-commerce start-up to make the cost-effective match between exporters and importers on the one hand and air freight carriers on the other. The idea behind the initiative is to create an e-marketplace where customers can shop and ship easily and grow their business efficiently. The platform plans to change the traditional way the customer reaches out for his logistics needs. One of the key objectives is to create a platform that provides the airfreight purchasing industry with real-time instant rates for its buyers. Ashish Asaf, MD & CEO, SA Consultants & Forwarders, says, “The idea is to encourage our industry by simplifying businesses. The present situation is that people are investing a lot of time and money. Our goal is to digitise the industry and simplify processes. This is our value-add to our customers who are doing business with us. Through this platform, we are giving the tools in our customers hand so that they can work faster.”

Spoton Logistics has launched its air express cargo services. With this announcement, the company now offers a range of specialised multi-modal express cargo services to B2B customers, significantly reducing turnaround time for time-sensitive deliveries to over 25,000 pin codes across India. Abhik Mitra, Managing Director and CEO, Spoton Logistics, has said, “The air express service will play a major role in catering to the rising demand for safe and faster deliveries. We expect our new service to act as the cornerstone in increasing our market share and provide competitive advantage to our clients.” The newly-launched Air Express service will be driven by Spoton’s road express pickup and delivery infrastructure and supported by its excellent usage of engineering, data and technology which helps the company deliver greater reliability and consistency to its customers.

To expand its reach in India, Kerry Indev Logistics has launched eight services, each catering to different B2B and B2C segments of the Indian market under the Kerry Indev Express brand. Dr S Xavier Britto, Chairman, Kerry Indev Group, says, “The Express service will enable our company to reach the doorsteps of consumers, thus completing our dream to offer truly end-to-end logistics solutions to them.” The eight pan-India last-mile delivery services launched under the Kerry Indev Express brand are Same Day Express, for guaranteed delivery within 6-8 hours in the same city or between designated cities; Early Express, for guaranteed overnight delivery across designated cities; Priority Package Express, for door-to-door delivery of valuable documents and packages across 200 cities/towns covering 3000 pin codes and expanding to 6,000 pin codes by end 2019; Priority Freight Express – Air, for next-day/committed door-to-door delivery solutions for commercial and urgent shipments to major metros and non-metros; Priority Freight Express – Surface, for a day definite door-to-door delivery solution for commercial and urgent shipments to major metros and non-metros; E-Commerce Business Express, for time-definite deliveries, international courier clearances for cross-border e-commerce services, cash on delivery, drop ship service, reverse logistics; Warehousing Solution Express, for fulfilment centre services and first & last-mile distribution services; Critical Solutions Express, for temperature-controlled distribution, passport and critical documents handling/jewellery cargo handling and clinical trial/biological sample supply chain solutions and other value added services.

With the passenger traffic declining by 1.1 per cent (Y-o-Y) in March 2019, the cargo traffic growth at Indian airports moderated to 6 per cent in FY2019, as against double-digit growth witnessed over the last two years. The growth slowdown was primarily driven by international cargo segment, which accounts for 62 per cent of the total cargo traffic and reported Y-o-Y growth of 2.6 per cent in FY2019 as against 15.6 per cent in FY2018. On the other hand, domestic cargo traffic has witnessed robust Y-o-Y growth of 12 per cent in FY2019, up from 8.1 per cent in FY2018.

Mumbai International Airport (MIAL) has become the first Indian airport and third in Asia to receive International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) Pharma certification. MIAL has achieved this quality milestone for pharma logistics following successful completion of training courses, on-site assessment, and complex validation processes. Acknowledging the importance of this initiative, MIAL has initiated the certification process with a community approach, together with its air cargo supply chain partners. The IATA CEIV Pharma certification has been introduced to prevent temperature excursions of pharma products during air transport, with the key objective of patient safety and reduction of losses attributed to logistical issues. It aims to improve the handling of pharmaceutical cargo by complying with existing national and international regulations.

E-booking platform Freightos WebCargo has acquired India’s Air Freight Bazaar, a regional air cargo rates and sales platform based in Chennai. “This acquisition combines WebCargo’s advanced air cargo rates, sales and e-booking platform, used by over 1,400 leading forwarders, with Air Freight Bazaar’s market share of 300 leading regional air forwarders,” said a Freightos WebCargo spokesperson. Air Freight Bazaar customers will receive access to WebCargo’s existing platform, including access to on-demand air rates, dynamic pricing, and e-booking with airlines like Lufthansa Cargo. Vinay Sethia, Co-founder, Air Freight Bazaar, said, “With WebCargo by Freightos, we can offer our customers improved technology, direct access to over 300 airlines, and e-booking. We’re also excited to represent WebCargo and Freightos in India.” Zvi Schreiber, Chief Executive Officer, Freightos, said, “Air Freight Bazaar has been a regional leader in freight digitalisation, making them a natural fit. Our initial focus in India will be on further automation for local air freight forwarders and collaborating on dynamic pricing and e-boking with regional airlines.”

Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) recently held a conference on ‘India – Future Air Cargo Leader in South East Asia’, in New Delhi. Addressing the gathering, Vandana Aggarwal, Economic Advisor, MoCA, Government of India, said, “In the last few years, we have emphasised on the fact that the entire value chain is important and we cannot work in silos. The result was laudable; air cargo, in terms of volume, has not only grown double-digit in the last two years, but we have also improved performance. Dwell time, which used to be more than 100 hours, came down to 13 per cent in the first year and 25 per cent in the second year. Today, we are stand at less than 39 hours for imports and less than 24 hours for exports, but there is more to be done.” Aggarwal also urged the air cargo community to take measures to strengthen itself to such a degree that these little blips, which were beyond their control, did not adversely affect the overall growth. Pradeep Singh Kharola, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, was the chief guest at the conference. The conference brought together ministry officials and expert speakers from the industry, as well as leaders from both India and abroad to debate on the National Air Cargo Policy that has been outlined and circulated by the government.