Category Archives: Aviation

CargoTalk, India’s leading and highest circulated logistics industry magazine was honored at the recently concluded 46th edition of The Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) held in Bangkok, Thailand. The three day long convention, after a gap of two years, brought together air cargo industry stakeholders from all across the globe under one roof. The insightful panel discussions will pave the way for the industry to move towards growth and the glittering evenings will be fondly remembered by one and all. Kudos to the ACAAI team for organising highly informative and well-organised convention and setting the standards so high.

J Krishnan, Board of Advisors, ACAAI talked about the core issues prevailing in this sector, he said, “The recent withdrawal of the exemption of international export freight is a very serious speed breaker and is not in consonance with the accelerated impetus to bring down the total logistics cost in India. This exemption or even more effective a’ zero rate’ regime for international freight must be assured. Skilling for the Logistics centre especially a syllabus in the vernacular needs a close monitoring and implementation if we are to provide the requisite efficient manpower for this industry.”

There are few important elements which needs to be really looked into. There is a need for long term planning by stakeholders be it the airlines or the airports,” said Manoj Singh, Senior VP Cargo and Express. He added, “The airports do have the infrastructure and capacity but the planning for the airlines for future requirement of the fleets and with the fuel cost going up and a lot of issues related to the war between Ukraine and Russia, there is an instability in terms of the vision where the airlines can procure the fleets for creating more of capacity.” He added, The fuel cost is very volatile again it’s going to fluctuate. But of course the fuel efficient aircraft, the EVs, the way the environment has been focused upon, even the aircraft are being modernized or new production of the aircraft, the growth is certain.”

India has one of the best cargo terminals in the world. Enjoy your infrastructure. Enjoy what you have. Let’s celebrate. Let’s help each other. Let’s grow together there is a whole new future for us we can do it together and we will show to the world how the Air Cargo will, in future would happen,” said Tushar Jani, Group Chairman, Cargo Service Center while addressing the gathering at the ongoing ACAAI convention. He urged the industry to collaborate, unite and hire young skilled professionals who have a fresh perspective. “I feel there are lots of opportunities for the young generation to enter this business. Younger generation, younger people, efficient government, that’s all what we need to become a global super power. This is our time. Don’t let it go. In the age of 70, in the last 4 months, I have visited 48 terminals around the world, So you need to get out, take your bag, go abroad see what they’re doing. India has all the potential.”

I have been addressing the issue of developing and building Air Freight Stations (AFS) at various conventions in the last few years, but unfortunately, nothing has been done to resolve the issues,” said Vipin Vohra, Chairman, Continental Carriers. At the ongoing 46th edition of ACAAI convention in Bangkok Thailand, he spoke exclusively to CargoTalk and said, “The government had launched the policy for AFS in 2014 and mine was the first approved greenfield AFS in India in 2016, but unfortunately the terminal operators in India, they don’t want to create competitions, they want to create monopoly, also as we know that logistics cost is very high in India, they want to charge full TSP while not doing even 15 % of their job. 85% job will be done by AFS, even customs cost recovery will be done by the AFS operator, their job is only to take the cargo in ULD out from the trucks to the flights. why customers should pay twice? I have approached all the government bodies, but this issue is not being resolved. It was my father’s dream to build a greenfield AFS in India and I will continue to fight for this.”

Kuehne+Nagel has put into operation its first Boeing 747-8 Freighter as part of the long-term charter agreement with Atlas Air, Inc., a subsidiary of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: AAWW). As the global market leader in air freight, Kuehne+Nagel expands its air freight network by chartering the entire capacity of the very last two 747-8F aircraft from their delivery by Boeing. During the official ceremony at the Boeing Everett Delivery Center in Everett, WA, the Boeing 747-8F under the name “Inspire.” was handed over to Kuehne+Nagel. The most capable freighter aircraft in the world will support Kuehne+Nagel customers with highly reliable service, reduced transit times and minimised risks. In addition to the Transpacific routings, the new service will be linked with Kuehne+Nagel Intra-Asia network to provide customers with better connectivity within the growing region of Asia Pacific. Yngve Ruud, Member of the Management Board of Kuehne+Nagel, responsible for Air Logistics, comments: “It is a very special moment for us to see Kuehne+Nagel 747-8F “Inspire.” taking off. Together with the very last 747-8F that we named “Empower.”, the aircraft will support our customers with reliable and flexible solutions globally, continuing the legacy of the most incredible aviation programs in history. We are delighted to celebrate this day with our partners Atlas Air and Boeing and looking forward to see our aircraft connecting the world.” The Boeing 747-8F serves an incredibly important role in global air freight, with advanced technology that allows for lower fuel consumption, higher capacity and unique nose-loading capability. “This 747-8 delivery underscores the importance of our long-term strategic partnership with Kuehne+Nagel and our commitment to support their continued growth and expansion,” said John Dietrich, President and Chief …

The second day of the ongoing 46th annual convention of ACAAI concluded with a panel discussion featuring Women in the Logistics sector. The panelists included Sakshi Gupta, Pacific Air Log, Latha Prakash, Broekman Log, Kavita Iyer, Aahana Solutions, Phoram Sampat, EKF Global, Reena Plakal, Aerosail Services, and Anupama Kachhap, WFS, while the Session Chairperson was Chaitaly Mehta, Member, Managing Committee, ACAAI. The ladies who are experts in their professions not only shared their stories and experiences of surviving the pandemic while balancing home and work but also urged the industry stakeholders to give more chances and opportunities to women professionals. “Gender diversity in logistics is the need of the hour. Logistics is no more a Man’s world. We need equal opportunities as there’s nothing we can’t do,” they stressed. Women are playing crucial roles in the industry by undertaking various initiatives to foster growth and create sustainable environment while being at the helm. Women participation at the ACAAI convention is quite visible and laudable.

FIATA Paperless bill of lading was launched by the FFFAI in India recently to integrate all modes of transportation, enhance efficiency and provide seamless and uninterrupted digitized supply chain solutions to the customers. Shankar Shinde, Chairman, FFFAI, while speaking at the ongoing ACAAI convention said, “Digitalization and Paperless transactions are the future of the business. Government of India has shown interest and is supportive to activate eBL to ensure active supply chain at any stage and with the support of the government aggressively working towards looking into regulation (Banking and electronic documentation)to align for implementation and acceptance across the stakeholders and Government Agencies on Legal grounds which is expected shortly. We have already experienced the success of eBL execution in some of the countries and shortly there will be are confident that there will be high acceptance and adoption at all levels. One should look forward to be first to onboard to grab the opportunity.” This will also reduce fraud with transparency on real time basis visibility as there would be no physical movement of documents and systems will based on messages exchange with traceability and delivery to right title holder discharging /defacing online through systems, he added. Shinde further added that in a market like India, having own bill of lading is a challenge as presently the logistics sector has to be registered to issue MTO Bill of lading for which more than one mode of transport in addition to sea would be required. “The first step towards this would be to empower the logistics service providers in capacity of issuing the Bill of lading as carrier and take the ownership which comes with responsibility to build trade confidence, …

Huned Gandhi, Managing Director, Dachser while addressing the panel at the ongoing ACAAI annual convention said, a lot has been done to improve the multimodal infrastructure and connectivity but there’s a lot more that needs to be done. It is a continuous process. Upskilling manpower is another important area of concern, he highlighted. Gandhi said, “There’s a need for getting skilling and training done for the new workforce because the industry is going to need people and at this stage, I see a major shortage in terms of new talent that we could hire in the company.” “The logistics industry is getting more complex, the world is getting more complex and we need skilled people, highly trained people, and that’s something that we need to work towards,” he added.

While addressing the gathering at the ongoing 46th edition of the Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) conference in Bangkok, Thailand, Tushar Jani, Group Chairman, Cargo Service Centre said that the industrial collaboration, unity and cooperation are vital to achieve growth in the future. He also stressed upon investing heavily in the supply chain business, training manpower and bringing more dedicated narrow body freighters in the coming years to transport cargo across the world. “Ten years from now, we should have more Indian air cargo airlines moving around the world and that’s the future. Let’s do it together. Let’s do it in appropriate ways. The stakeholders need to understand that the world will collapse if there is no supply chain and if you are a smart investor, you should invest in the supply chain. I have come across many foreign investors ready to invest in the Indian logistics market, considering the potential it has. Also, there is an urgent need to train manpower and bring in fresh talent. I want to urge you to bring young people into this system and take this industry forward.” Jani said, it’s the right time to invest in the Indian market.  “India is going to build a dedicated freight corridor from North East via Myanmar to Thailand to Cambodia, Vietnam and connecting Phillipines. This is going to be an alternative route to the other trade establishments in this part of the world. So the North East is going to be the gateway for cargo conversion and the North East is going to be the logistic gateway for India,” he shared. He further added, “The next e-commerce gateway of India would be the North East. …