Category Archives: Aviation

Delhi International Airport (DIAL) has announced that it has been chosen as the exclusive cargo transshipment centre in India by China. As per this significant development, Chinese cargo to the central Asian countries is now being routed through Delhi airport’s Transshipment Excellence Centre (TEC). Expressing happiness over the development, Videh Kumar Jaipuria, CEO, DIAL, said, “Delhi has emerged as a cargo hub for businesses in North India and neighbouring countries.” An Air Asia X (D7) freighter, carrying garment and accessories, brought the consignment from Beijing to Delhi for onward delivery to Ukraine in the last week of 2019. This was the first instance of international-to-international movement of China’s cargo via Delhi Airport. “This new movement of international transhipment cargo connecting China to Ukraine via Delhi Airport will give a significant impetus to the air cargo and regional logistics sectors,” said Jaipuria.

The DHL Global Trade Barometer predicts mildly positive growth for Indian trade with the country’s index rising five points to 54. According to data from the DHL Global Trade Barometer released by DHL, the positive outlook is driven primarily by an uptake in ocean imports of basic and industrial raw materials and chemicals and products, coupled with a gradual revival in air exports of consumer fashion goods. In total, ocean trade grew by 10 points, maintaining India’s positive outlook even as air trade forecasts experience relative weakness. The strong growth in ocean import and export will sustain India’s trade growth over three months in 2020. “India has the strongest trade forecast this quarter and the highest index value of all countries in the latest Global Trade Barometer survey, followed closely by the United Kingdom and Japan,” said Niki Frank, CEO, DHL Global Forwarding India. He adds, “This highlights the underlying potential of India’s economy, which will benefit from the government’s plan to invest US$ 1.39 trillion (€ 1.26 trillion) in infrastructure projects. The country’s commitment to establishing itself as a strategic maritime hub with initiatives and investments in coastal infrastructure appear to be supporting the index’s positive ocean trade outlook and will likely also contribute positively to longer-term trade growth.”

Increasing demand for warehousing from both domestic and international players is driving demand for efficient and international practices of storing and moving goods. LEAP India expects the demand for pallets on lease to go up to four million during the year 2020-21 from three million deployed currently. The company is expanding its client base to 550 spread across FMCG, beverages, auto, food, e-Commerce and large logistic players. Sunu Mathew, Managing Director, LEAP India comments, “We see enough opportunity in both pallets and Foldable Large Containers (FLCs). We are all geared up to tap this huge opportunity as we are well positioned to expand our pallets base. The company has good number of veterans from logistics and other sectors managing various functions professionally.”

KWE India has launched Slip Sheet Handling for airfreight shipments ex-Bengaluru to address material handling issues of cargo and enhancing ULD optimisation. The idea is to transform air transport and storage challenges by offering an economical material handling solution for cargo handling and storage applications. Also, when combined with a push-pull attachment and buffers, PVC or cardboard slip sheets allow customers to ship, receive and warehouse unit loads on inexpensive slip-sheets rather than pallets. According to Karthi Baskar, Deputy Managing Director, KWE India, “Slip sheet handling is our innovative offering for the Indian pharmaceutical industry. In this regard, our first trial shipment ex Bengaluru was moved on December 12, 2019 for our customer and was supported by Air India SATS CoolPort facility and Emirates Airlines to make it successful.

Bollore Logistics India has signed a contract with CFM Aircraft Engine Support South Asia for aircraft engine transportation. The contract also includes customs clearance documentation at the Dubai Airshow. The contract was signed between Karthigeyan Ramaswamy, Managing Director, CFM Aircraft Engine Support South Asia and Philippe Lortal, CEO – Middle East & South Asia, Bolloré Logistics. “The contract signed is for importation into India including custom clearance at Delhi airport. The contract also includes services related to re-export from India which includes outbound export custom process at Khurja to re-export back to the origin. Bolloré Logistics is also nominated for the International Freight Forwarding to various origins from Delhi” said Ramaswamy.

Allcargo Logistics has forayed into the express logistics space by acquiring a controlling stake in Gati. The company has added another domestic service to its portfolio by entering a segment which has been growing exponentially through this transaction. “The exponential rise in cross-border and domestic e-commerce has opened up new markets for traditional express players such as Gati. With Allcargo’s existing strength in the ocean transportation business and Gati’s expertise in land and air transportation, we are now in a unique position to offer our customers a suite of truly multimodal solutions,” comments, Shashi Kiran Shetty, Chairman, Allcargo Logistics. According to a study led by Deloitte in 2018, the express logistics industry is expected to reach Rs48,000 crore (US$ 7 billion) by 2023. This growth will primarily be driven by domestic consumption, shift from unorganised to organised trade, e-commerce (domestic and cross border) and significant demand from the small and medium B2B segment.

SpiceJet and Gulf Air have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to examine areas of potential synergy, including looking at co-ordinating cargo services, interline or codeshare agreements, shared engineering services and pilot training. The MoU was signed by Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet, and Krešimir Kučko, Chief Executive, Gulf Air. Singh comments, “This agreement is going to play a very important role for airline’s next phase of growth as we continue to explore the innumerable opportunities around us.” SpiceJet’s cargo division, SpiceXpress, took delivery of its first 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF) earlier this autumn. The standard-body freighter, the first 737-800BCF to be operated in south Asia, was leased from NGF Alpha Limited, a division of Spectre Cargo Solutions.

In order to take the ease of doing business initiatives to next level, customs department is rolling out the concept of faceless assessment of cargo across the country in next few months. The consignments will be assessed by virtual group irrespective of where the Bill of Entry is filed. Baswaraj Nalegave, Commissioner of Customs (City and ICD), Bengaluru, says, “We are moving ahead with the concept of faceless assessment,” in adding, “From now onwards, in a phased manner, we will ensure that the assessment of cargo need not be done at the same place where the Bill of Entry is filed,” he stated. “We have already started the pilot in Bangalore. So, all machinery will be assessed by a virtual group no matter where the Bill of Entry is filed. In Chennai, it’s already being done. It’s a matter of a few months before it is rolled out across the country,” he noted.

Sichuan Airlines (3U) is commencing freighter services from Delhi to Chengdu, China effective from November 27, 2019. This service will be operated with AB330-200F which offers maximum payload capacity of 60 tonne. After the inaugural flight, the freighter will operate twice weekly service every Monday and Friday to enhance their frequency to four weekly services Sichuan Airlines has built a world-class fleet of 152 aircrafts that connects five continents, improving its network capability and opening more international routes to build a bridge between Western China and the world.

The 45th Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI) annual convention was held in Phuket, Thailand. With the theme of ‘End-to-end logistics – A way forward’, the 45th annual ACAAI convention saw an eminent presence of the industry experts from various quarters of the world under one roof. The chief guest of the evening was Fitsum Abadi, Managing Director, Ethiopian Cargo & Logistics Services and the event was also graced by Anis Chakravarty, Partner and Leader, Global Transfer Pricing Center, Deloitte. The convention was formally inaugurated by lighting the lamp and release of convention souvenir by the chief guest Abadi, Sunil Arora, President, Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI), Anil Vazirani, Chairman, ACAAI Convention 2019 and all other dignitaries.