Category Archives: Aviation

Industry recommended a parallel runway, an international cargo village, an aero city, and a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility at Parandur Greenfield airport near Chennai. At the initial discussion, the stakeholders made these recommendations to M.K. Stalin, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) said, the airport should have parallel runways rather than the intersecting ones at Chennai Airport to facilitate uninterrupted aircraft flow. A new, first-rate aviation city with top-notch infra was suggested to be built by the CII in the area surrounding the airport. The new airport’s transhipment and cargo handling capabilities could help Chennai become a major transhipment hub in South-East Asia. A separate corridor from the city to the airport by rail, metro, or road connectivity has been proposed for Chennai-Bengaluru route is overcrowded.

Handler Swissport has opened a new air cargo warehouse at Halifax Stanfield International Airport on the back of increasing demand. The 370 sq m facility is the handler’s sixth cargo location in Canada and the third new Canadian warehouse in under half a year. In comparison with 2019, the company’s volumes in Canada are up 35%, underlining the need for increased warehousing and logistics capacity. “With the opening of new warehouses across Canada, we are leveraging Swissport‘s global expertise to deliver world-class air cargo handling at more Canadian airports,” said Charles Roberge, chief executive of Swissport in Canada. “We are adding more services in more places making sure we meet the growing needs of our customers and changes in the industry. With its comprehensive service portfolio Swissport in Canada aspires to be the partner of choice for global and local customer airlines alike and we will continue to invest in our service delivery.” The company has also recently added new air cargo warehouses at Montréal–Mirabel International Airport and Edmonton International Airport.

SriLankan Cares, the CSR arm of SriLankan Airlines, takes on the cause of airlifting essential medicines gifted by Indian donors to hospitals in Sri Lanka, free of freight charges. SriLankan Cares has teamed with Sri Lankan Cargo to implement the long-term humanitarian project, aiming to channel medical product donations from India among others to hospitals in Sri Lanka that are struggling to cope with the ongoing drug shortage in the country. The project is also representative of the Sri Lankan national carrier’s enduring commitment to espouse national causes in the country’s hour of urgent need. SriLankan Cares has airlifted consignments of life-saving drugs donated by organizations and individuals. The medical supplies were flown free of freight charges on SriLankan Airlines and distributed to medical establishments across Sri Lanka.

According to report, Air India may bring back its 10 grounded wide bodied aircraft into service by early 2023. A wide body aircraft has a bigger fuel tank, allowing it to travel long global routes such as India-US and India-Canada. “Air India currently has 43 wide bodied aircraft, of which 33 are operational. This is an improvement from the 28 aircraft that the airline was operating till recently,” a statement read. “The remaining ones will be returned to service by early 2023,” it added. As per it, the progressive restoration of these aircraft has made Air India to increase schedule resilience and allow frequency and network increases over the coming months.

A new air freight service connectuthe southern Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, and Bengaluru, was recently launched, officials from Shenzhen Ba’oan International Airport stated in a statement. Five flights between the two destinations are scheduled to be operated each week. To date, there are three freight routes linking the airport and India, and the opening of the new route will increase weekly outbound cargo volume from 190 tonnes to over 500 tonnes, officials said. Another four cargo routes connecting the airport with Hanoi, Doha, Leipzig, New York, and Bengaluru have been launched this year. So far, the number of global and regional destinations with the airport’s air cargo services has increased to 34, with 370 cargo flights being operated per week, providing strong support for the export of enterprises in the emerging city. In the first seven months of this year, the overseas cargo throughput of the airport totaled 443,000 tonnes, up 21.6 per cent annually y-o-y.

An air cargo complex is likely to be constructed soon for import of commodities, including handicraft items, mineral production, and export of fruits and vegetables at Dabok Airport in Udaipur. Rajiv Arora, chairman, Rajasthan Small Industries Corporation Limited, who recently interacted with Airport Authority in Udaipur officials. He said the possibilities of import of handicrafts from Udaipur, building stones, minerals and export of fruits and vegetables and supplies from local industry were explored for the new air cargo. As per reports, Ministry of Civil Aviation has given the go-green signal for giving in-principal permission to Dabok Airport to set up an air cargo complex and the location has been identified. “The day is not far when Udaipur will have its place on the international map as an importer and exporter,” Arora added.

Lufthansa Cargo reported an EBIT of €482 million (US$492 million) for the second quarter ended June 30 2022—an increase of 48 per cent compared to Q22021 on demand for freight and average yields in the airfreight industry well above the pre-crisis level. “Momentum continues due to ongoing capacity shortages, and ~70 per cent of load originates outside of Germany,” stated the airline. F00or Q22022, traffic revenue increased 45 per cent to €1.2 billion (US$1.23 billion). While available CTKs increased by 20 per cent to 2.9 billion compared to 2.5 billion in Q22021, revenue cargo tonne kilometres was down marginally at 1.8 billion. Cargo load factor was down 13 pts at 60.2 In the first half, Lufthansa Cargo achieved a new record adjusted EBIT of €977 million (US$996 million) compared to €641 million (US$654 million) in H12021. Traffic revenue was up 46 per cent to €2.3 billion (US$2.3 billion). “On 9 May 2022, the Lufthansa Group decided to purchase three Boeing 777F cargo aircraft and seven Boeing 777-8F cargo aircraft. In addition, leases for two Boeing 777F cargo aircraft, which run until 2024, will be extended,” the carrier added.

The newly developed domestic cargo terminal commenced operations at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. The 600 square feet facility has the capacity to handle over 3,500 MT per year. The 24×7 terminal is poised to boost cargo trade from Thiruvananthapuram. The facility provides end-to-end cargo services encompassing cityside handling, security functions, storage and airside handling under close monitoring to ensure safety of the cargo. Besides adding incremental cargo handling capacity to the airport’s cargo infra, the facility will provide an additional choice of services for the trade at the airport. The infrastructure of the new cargo facility is likely to improve the service levels of cargo handling at the domestic terminal. The new facility is equipped to handle perishable goods, with temperature control from 15°C to 25°C. The facility will handle machinery parts, readymade garments, fabrics, dyes, chemicals, valuable cargo, and other commodities.

According to General Vijay Kumar Singh, Minister of State in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Ministry of Civil Aviation, there are no norms prescribed by DGCA to specify the shelf life of an aircraft in the country. He said aircraft in India could fly till their certificate for their type is valid and are under production or maintenance support by their manufacturer. “The aircraft are considered airworthy provided the maintenance is as per the approved schedule laid down by the manufacturer. Aircraft registered in India may operate if the type certificate is valid for the type of aircraft and it is under production/maintenance support provided by the manufacturer for the continuous operation of the aircraft,” Singh said. He added the aviation regulator has laid down age criteria for importing aircraft to India. “Aircraft to be used for air cargo ops are restricted to 25-years or 75 per cent of its designed economic life in terms of pressurization cycles, whichever is earlier,” the ministry said.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Minister of Civil Aviation said, a broader ecosystem of civil aviation needs to be set up in the country, including cargo, drones, flight training schools and MRO facilities. “With India’s airport infra and airlines well in place, it is time to lay a wider focus on the sector,” he said, during his virtual address recently. He said it is important to look at the sector in entirety in addition to the focus areas of airports and airlines. Focusing on cargo, drones, flying training organizations, ground handling of the ecosystem, he said, “Too much preponderance has traditionally been on airlines and airports because they are the lynchpins of the ecosystem of civil aviation. But now that these lynchpins have come into place in a formidable manner in our country, it is important to set up in place the ecosystem of civil aviation and that ecosystem comprises multiple myriad areas within civil aviation.”