Category Archives: Aviation

Air cargo stakeholders have appealed for extension of GST exemption notification. The GST exemption was valid till 30 September. “With effect from 1 October, there will be an additional upfront of 18 per cent of GST payable on export freight with the facility for input credit. While Commerce ministry wants every district to identify and promote exports of at least one product. Even for the GST registered, this increase its compliance cost as full input credit is permitted, which shall not fetch any extra revenue to the government but increase the compliance cost to tax assesses. Internationally, all export-related charges are Zero rated, except in Indi where the increase in logistics cost increase the cost further,” said J Krishnan, former ACAAI President and Board of Advisors. M Afzal Malbarwwala, President, ACAAI sharing his views said, “It will affect us and exporters business. The cash flow will be the biggest hurdle. Every exporter must have made huge investments since all importers are asking for credit and to keep up business and to compete with other countries our exporters must do. On top of it, the rule seriously affects exports. The government wants to promote exports and has launched new NLP which was accepted by all and now a big blow. Anywhere in the world there is no GST on exports and related. The sea freight which is not even 1/3rd cost of airfreight there is no GST then why for air. Air imports have no GST, but sea imports GST have 5 per cent only. We request the government to seriously rethink and charge GST @ 0 per cent, which is the norm in sea and air.”

Air Canada Cargo is all set to launch five times a week B767 freighter service from St. John’s (YYT) to Frankfurt and Madrid. Effective October 1, there will be two non-stop flights per week to Frankfurt and three non-stop weekly flights to Madrid. Air Canada Cargo is the only carrier with a scheduled cargo service from St. John’s to Europe, supporting Newfoundland and Labrador’s economy. These new flights complement Air Canada Cargo services to Halifax, strengthening the carrier’s freighter network, connecting Atlantic Canada globally.

Saudia Cargo has collaborated with IATA for its Center of Excellence for Independent Validators for Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma) Certification for safe air transport and handling of pharma shipments. Teddy Zebitz, Saudia Cargo CEO and Frederic Leger, IATA Senior VP Commercial Products and Services, signed the agreement at the recently concluded IATA World Cargo Symposium in London. For the next few months, Saudia Cargo will prepare across multiple aspects of its operations, particularly on staff competency to handle pharma, comply with IATA’s requirements for CEIV Pharma Certification on top of Good Distribution Practices, stated the release. The process is meant to ensure critical healthcare cargo such as COVID vaccines and other pharma and bioscience products are not compromised while they transported by air.

To address issues related to expanding air cargo options and block space agreements, and pending regulatory approvals, Emirates SkyCargo and United Cargo signed an agreement at the recently concluded IATA World Cargo Symposium. The MoU will build on existing cargo interline arrangements between both air cargo operators and offer freight customers access to more capacity on a larger combined global network. United Cargo, which last year had decided against entering the freighter market, will now have access to Emirates SkyCargo’s high frequency distribution network through to over 100 global destinations by 11 B777-F freighters, stated the release. Emirates SkyCargo will have access to over 200 cities in the USA and 300 cities across five continents through United Cargo. The agreement was signed by Nabil Sultan, Emirates divisional senior vice president, cargo, and Jan Krems, president, United Cargo.

Mr. Vipin Vohra, Chairman, Continental Carriers Pvt Ltd (CCPL) was honoured at the 23rd Annual General Meet (AGM) of Association of Multimodal Transport Operators of India (AMTOI) held on 28 September 2022 in Mumbai where Mr. Xerxess Master, President, AMTOI felicitated Mr. Vohra Vohra for the completion of 50 years of the company in logistics business since incorporation.

To define higher standards and make transactions transparent and customer-friendly for the logistics and air cargo industry, Cargo Flash InfoTech launched a new product range ‘OCTOGO’ at the ongoing IATA World Cargo Symposium (WCS) 2022. Jasraj S Chug, Co-Founder & Director of Cargo Flash InfoTech who recently hosted a workshop on ‘DIGIGASM – The emerging world of Air Cargo’ at WCS said, “Octogo brings in a well-thought and carefully designed product line for the entire Air Cargo ecosystem. Our new and upcoming product lines are made to forecast rates, capacity, industry needs and demands triggering the development of data-driven decisions. We endeavour to tap transactions, supporting the growth of a digital environment that can unfold new opportunities for our customers. It will soon be ready to provide direct access to millions of global Air Cargo and Logistics stakeholders, all on a multi-faceted, cloud-based platform.” Both Jambojet and SalamAir to go live with Cargo Flash’s new Octogen, modular-based Cargo Management System (CMS), an advanced assemblage of its existing ‘nGen’ software, further developed under the ‘Octogo’ portfolio.

Shankar Shinde, Chairman, Federation of Freight Forwarders Association in India (FFFAI) said, “Logistics in India is an unorganized sector and there was a need to collate towards progress, achieving the government’s endeavours of striving towards single digit logistics cost aligning with developed countries to compete and promote our products in the international market. The National Logistics Policy (NLP) which was unveiled by the Hon’ble Prime Minister on September 17, 2022, aims towards reducing logistics cost to single digit to make India one of the viable manufacturing hubs in the world. Other key objectives of the NLP are to create common platform for better understanding of Government with stakeholders to assess and take steps towards developments and integrating the modes of transport, Multimodal with Transmodal to make it seamless and effective. In achieving “Atmanirbhar Bharat”and “Make in India” dream come true, the first and last mile delivery needs to be effective on real time monitoring basis to reduce dwell time and logistics cost. The NLP highlighted that present logistics cost is the result of multiple factors including policy framework and constraints of required infrastructure, both physical and IT, and aptly addressed those bottlenecks to facilitate the country’s manufacturing and domestic distribution for international trade supported by domestic connectivity.

The 52nd Annual General Meet of the Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) was held in Mumbai wherein the following members were elected unopposed: Samir J Shah, Hon. Secretary from Star Freight, Ahmedabad, Praveen Menon – Hon. Treasurer from Interfreight Services, Chennai, Mahesh Trikha, Member Managing Committee from Aargus Global Logistics Ltd, Delhi, Ronald Goveas – Member Managing Committee from Skylink Freight, Mumbai, Vikram Kumar – Member Managing Committee from CTC Air Carriers, Delhi, Chaitaly Mehta – Member Managing Committee from EKF Global Logistics, Mumbai. The outgoing Hony. Treasurer Anil Vazirani of Robinson Cargo and Logistics Pvt Ltd has been co-opted as the Member Managing Committee. While M Afzal Malbarwala and C K Govil will continue as President and Vice President respectively. The AGM was attended by Members, Regional Chairman and Board of Advisors including Sam Katgara, Partner, Jeena and Company, Keshav Tanna, Links Forwarders Pvt Ltd, Vipin Vohra, Chairman, Continental Carriers and T A Varghese, Aroscan Cargo Trade. Radharamana Panicker of DGM India who was a special invitee enlightened the Members regarding the new competence-based training for Dangerous Goods which shall be enforced from 1 January 2023.

IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd) newest aircraft an Airbus A321-211 (P2F), a first in India, ex-Avion Express, leased from Castlelake, is all set to touch the Indian skies soon, according to an official post on Linkedin. Mahesh Malik, Chief Commercial Officer-CarGo, IndiGo said: “We are pleased to receive our first A321 freighter aircraft in 6E fleet. CarGo has always been a success story for us especially highlighted during the pandemic. The CarGo business brought in revenues when the scheduled commercial flights were at a standstill. Our partnership with the Airbus for Freighter programme will further help strengthen our business in the CarGo segment, and act as a strong engine of economic growth for the country. We remain optimistic on the future of Indian aviation, clearly, and the place of CarGo within it – and the expansion into a true freighter fleet is a testament of this confidence.” The A321P2F (Passenger-to-Freighter conversion) is the most efficient narrow-bodied freighter available, offering 24 container positions and supporting a payload of up to 27 tonnes. These are being converted through a programme involving ST Engineering and Airbus with their joint venture, Elbe FlugzeugWerke (EFW). The aircraft is uniquely capable for IndiGo, using our current vast pool of A320 family pilots, and able to service markets between China in the east and the Gulf in the west, not forgetting the CIS countries to the north.

Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (BLR Airport) continues to be the No.1 airport for handling perishable shipments from India. BLR Airport recorded 52,366 Metric Tonnes (MT) of perishable shipments in FY 2021-22, compared to the previous year’s 48,130 MT. 41% of South India’s air-cargo perishable tonnage is currently handled by BLR Airport making it the leading airport for perishables in India. Fruits and vegetables along with the export of poultry and flower have been major segments driving this growth. 36,493 MT of poultry and 1,952 MT of flowers were exported from BLR Airport in FY’22. Doha emerged as the leading destination followed by Singapore, London, and Male. A total of 33 cargo freighter airlines transported perishable shipments from BLR Airport to 85 international destinations in FY’22. “BLR Airport has the advantage of dedicated cold zones enabling processing of perishable goods for export, which is the highest in India. The infrastructure that we provide ensures cold-chain integrity and seamless movement of perishables, without any change in the optimum storage temperature. Our recent partnerships with multiple cargo partners for infrastructure and technology will only make the Airport’s cargo capacity stronger and even better”, stated Satyaki Raghunath, Chief Strategy and Development Officer at Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL).