Category Archives: Aviation

SpiceXpress has commenced its narrow body domestic freighter service connecting Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. With this, Hyderabad International Airport now has six scheduled freighters operating. SpiceJet’s 737-700F freighter aircraft will operate 6 days every week, arriving from Chennai at 9:45 pm and departing for Delhi at 10:45 pm. This service will connect Chennai – Hyderabad – Delhi – Mumbai – Bangalore sectors and has a capacity to carry approximately 20 MT of cargo. Manjiv Singh, Chief Project Officer, SpiceJet, added “Today’s consumers demand for the quickest deliveries possible. This has been shaping the e-commerce and logistics processes, and in turn the express logistics sector.” SGK Kishore, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) said, “We have been working with our partners including SpiceJet to bring in more choices and offer enhanced services in the Hyderabad air cargo market. With the addition of this new freighter, customers will have more options to ship their goods within the country and beyond. The availability of high-quality, daily cargo services is essential for the development of trade especially in high-value and time-sensitive products. This will also give a boost to the cargo and logistics sector in the region.”

Delhi International Airport (DIAL) has announced the construction of a dedicated elevated corridor to keep away vehicles carrying airport cargo from regular traffic, thus reducing congestion. Delhi airport will be the first airport to have a dedicated road for trucks carrying cargo into the cargo complex via the NH8. This dedicated road will also provide vehicles direct access to the cargo terminals and air cargo logistics centre (ACLC), including the upcoming cargo city. According to a statement issued by DIAL, “This 3km long four-lane dedicated elevated road will provide hassle-free, safe and seamless movement of trucks carrying cargo to the airport and will not disrupt regular traffic. It will also ease the traffic movement on the airport’s main approach road — the Central Spine Road, which is currently being used by both passengers as well as cargo vehicles.”

The International Airport Transport Association (IATA) recently awarded the Mumbai and Hyderabad branches of Dachser India with the prestigious CEIV Pharma certification, recognizing the company for its excellence in transporting Life Science and Healthcare (LSH) products. The certification is a significant achievement for the logistics service provider given that only very few companies are currently accredited in India. In fact, the Dachser Hyderabad branch is only the second logistics firm in the area to receive the recognition; while its Mumbai branch is only among a few in the region. The Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma) certification is a globally recognized certificate that acknowledges companies who excel in transporting Life Science and Healthcare (LSH) products. It is a quality mark and an industry standard that recognizes the logistics service provider as being able to safely, security and efficiently handle pharmaceutical shipments through the supply chain to assure product integrity and compliance with national and international guidelines. “Obtaining the CEIV Pharma certification is an important milestone for Dachser India. It emphasizes our continued focus for providing highly reliable logistic services to our valued customers in the LSH segment”, said Huned Gandhi, Managing Director, Air & Sea Logistics for the Indian Subcontinent. “Quality and efficiency have always been the cornerstones for our success and our teams are extremely proud to receive this accreditation from IATA”, Gandhi added.

Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) and Aerospace & Aviation Sector Skill Council (AASSC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to promote the skill development initiatives in the air cargo industry. AASSC & ACFI will work towards fulfilling the needs of air cargo logistics sector by involving the industry in developing and reviewing the occupational standards, build a credible and stringent quality assurance system for identification and accreditation of training partners, training of trainers, stringent assessments and a credible certification, and bring in international best practices.

Nirbhik Narang has been appointed the cargo division head of Air India. Narang replaces Abhay Pathak, Executive Director (Commercial), Cargo Division, Air India. Prior to this position, he worked as General Manager – commercial at Air India Headquarters in Delhi. At Air India, he has worked as General Manager – Commercial for Southern Region (India); Station Manager Ahmedabad; Country Manager, Singapore & Nepal; head of sales & marketing for Eastern Region (India); and also, as station manager & airport manager at various domestic stations. He also had a short, but pivotal role in the airline’s revenue management.

Delhi International airport launched a dedicated facility exclusively for cargo handling, called, Transshipment Excellence Centre. The facility, spread over 6,500 square metres, can handle about 20,000 tonnes of cargo a month. The facility can process cargo in a span of 45 minutes to six hours, depending on the type and volume of cargo. The international transshipment cargo is sent from airlines to the centre where it is segregated and sent for onward despatch. The facility will allow exporters and shippers in the region to bring their cargo to Delhi and move it globally.

TA Varghese, President, ACAAI, believes, “Liberalisation of FDI in aviation will facilitate the growth of this capital-intensive industry.” He continues, “Boost has been given to India Inc. in the budget. The plan to utilise Rs 70,000 crore for the recapitalisation of banks is likely to ease the credit crunch for business and industry. The proposal to invest Rs 100 lakh crore in infrastructure projects in the next five years and the plan to construct 1.25 lakh kilometres of rural roads will boost the movement of goods pan India. The Union Budget 2019-20 is a budget with a 10-year vision and a 5-year target.” The proposed-investment in infrastructure and digital economy as well as job creation in small and medium firms may generate much-needed jobs in these sectors. The first step towards achieving the objective of powering India to a $ 5 trillion economy by 2024 have been taken in this budget. Overall, this budget has sought to balance the needs of both ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’. It projects a ‘new India’ roadmap by placing great emphasis on uplifting rural India through various measures while also addressing the needs of urban India. The planned provision of access to electricity for every rural household by 2022, clean water to all rural households by 2024 and 1.9 crore houses to citizens in the next two years are steps in the right direction.

IndiGo has appointed Globe Air Cargo Turkey, a subsidiary of ECS Group, as the General Sales Agent (GSA). The airline has just launched its cargo activities between Istanbul (IST) and New Delhi (DEL) via its new GSA. “IndiGo is an incredibly dynamic airline, and we are delighted to be able to contribute to its growth by representing the airline in Turkey. We are in total sync with IndiGo and, naturally, we will do all we can to develop the airline’s cargo revenue, via the interlinked network to which we belong,” said Nursel Guven, Managing Director, Globe Air Cargo Turkey.

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.