Category Archives: Aviation

As part of India’s war against COVID-19, the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India has launched ‘lifeline Udan’ flights for movement of medical and essential supplies across the country and beyond. Under the Udan initiative of Ministry of Civil Aviation, 74 flights have been operated till date for transporting medical cargo across the country. A total of 37.63 tonne of cargo has been transported till date out of which more than 22 tonne has been transported on March 31, 2020. A dedicated medical air cargo related website has been launched and is fully functional from today. Domestic cargo operators; Blue Dart and Spicejet are operating cargo flights on commercial basis. On March 31, following flights were operated: Lifeline 1: Air India flights; Mumbai to New Delhi to Guwahati to Mumbai carried consignments of Meghalaya, Assam, ICMR, consignment of Nagaland, Arunachal, and Pune Lifeline 2: Air India flights; New Delhi to Hyderabad to Trivandrum to Goa to Delhi. It carried consignments of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, ICMR. Lifeline 3: Alliance Air flight; Hyderabad to Bengaluru to Hyderabad carried consignment of Ministry of Textiles. Lifeline 4: Air India flight; Chennai to Port Blair to Chennai Lifeline 5: IAF flight; Hindon (Delhi) to Port Blair via Sulur

The cargo flights were operated to carry medical supplies to Southern, eastern and north eastern regions on 30th March 2020. Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) shares the below details: Lifeline 1- Air India flight A320 on its route Mumbai-New Delhi-Bengaluru-Mumbai, carried HLL consignment of 6593 kg and Nagaland ventilator masks, consignments of Kerala and Karnataka, consignment of Bipaps for Meghalaya and consignment of Ministry of Textiles for Coimbatore. Lifelines 2- IAF flight from Hindon- Dimapur- Imphal-Guwahati carried consignments of HLL and ICMR kits for Shillong. Private airlines such as Indigo, Spicejet and Blue Dart are also operating flights on commercial basis. MoCA group was formed with important stakeholders. Hub & spoke lifeline services were started. Cargo Hubs have been created at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata. Hubs feed to spokes at Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Agartala, Aizwal, Imphal, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram. Total cargo load carried from 26th to 29th March 2020 was 10 Tonnes. The cargo essentially covered COVID-19 related reagents, enzymes, medical equipment, testing kits & PPE, masks, gloves & other accessories of HLL & cargo requisitioned by State/UT Governments. A dedicated Medical Air Cargo related website has been launched and is functional. This website will be fully functional from 1st April, 2020. The link is available on the MoCA website (www.civilaviation.gov.in). The information sharing, answering of queries and the work at ground is going on round the clock for delivering the supplies to the destinations in a timely manner so that the efforts to fight the COVID 19 are multiplied and supplemented.

The airport has suspended all the commercial passenger flights until April 14 midnight with the recent directive by the Government of India. However, the airport continues to remain operational with a curtailed staff of over 500 personnel working endlessly for vital cargo operations and emergency evacuation flights, if any at the same time safeguarding safety precautions at the airport. To cater to the greater need of mobilizing and supplying essential commodities across India and the world, the airport is operating its cargo handling activities. The items include pharmaceutical goods, medical equipment, which are approved by the regulatory bodies and customs.

The Hyderabad International Airport has been shut for international and domestic traffic for the last few days. However, air cargo services are operational to keep the vital link of essential supplies alive and operational round the clock. The airport is handling 11 freighters weekly along with some special cargo charters, which are connecting Hyderabad with all major international destinations in the United States of America, European countries, Middle-east, Africa, Far East, etc. – moving emergency supplies. About 100 tonnes of export and import cargo is being witnessed at the airport. Out of this over 70 per cent consignment belongs to pharma and essential products. Some of the key Pharma companies, which are using the cargo services include – Dr. Reddys Laboratories, Aurobindo Pharma, Mylan Laboratories Limited, Hetero Drugs, Divis Laboratories Limited, MSN Pharma, Pfizer, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Natco Pharma, among others. Approx. 40-50 trucks which includes bonded trucking, temp-controlled trucks and general cargo trucks, are coming to Hyderabad Airport for consignment delivery and lift-off daily. With around 200 dedicated and highly motivated personnel working in a shift, Hyderabad Air Cargo is operating round the clock to ensure all these essential supplies are properly handled and timely cleared. The personnel include GMR cargo staff, Customs officials, Regulatory Agencies, Ground handlers, Freight Forwarders, CHAs among others.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued a set of instructions for safely operating this crucial service with all cargo flight allowed in the Indian skies. The DGCA circular for cargo operation says, “All personnel involved with cargo operations to be made aware of the importance of ensuring adequate distance (minimum 1-1.5 metres) at all work stations. All personnel dealing with cargo operations will be provided with personal protective equipments like masks, gloves, etc. All agencies shall ensure that repeated disinfection of common working areas is carried out at timely intervals.”

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) says that it is coordinating with state governments to ensure the supply of medical equipment and related essential items needed for protection against and testing of COVID-19. The senior officials of the Ministry coordinate with supply agencies for providing required material which can be further transported to the desired destinations, based on the requirements received from various states on urgent basis. Air India and Alliance Air flights are being operated to carry out the necessary supply operations across the country. Agencies authorised by MoCA to carry shipment on these flights contact the concerned officials of their region and coordinate for timely delivery/ receipt of shipments. In order to cater to eastern and north eastern parts of the country, an Alliance Air flight from Delhi to Kolkata carried shipments for Kolkata, Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Agartala on March 29, 2020. In northern region, IAF flight from Delhi to Chandigarh to Leh carried ICMR VTM kits and other essential cargo. Alliance Air transferred Pune shipment to Mumbai on Air India flight. Flights on Mumbai -Delhi-Hyderabad-Chennai-Mumbai and Hyderabad-Coimbatore route carried and transported ICMR kits of Shimla, Rishikesh, Lucknow and Imphal from Pune to Delhi. ICMR kits were carried to Chennai. A consignment of Hyderabad was delivered. Consignments of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry were also delivered. A consignment of Ministry of Textiles was moved to Coimbatore. The information sharing, answering of queries and the work at ground is going on round the clock for delivering the supplies to the destinations in a timely manner so the efforts to fight the COVID-19 are multiplied and supplemented.

DHL Express and BVC entered a partnership to enable Indian SMEs, in the gems and jewellery industry, to grow their presence in the international marketplace. The service is targeted at 10,000 Indian jewellery SME exporters to help them expand their presence in international markets for B2C shipments. Commenting on the partnership, Sandeep Juneja, Vice President – Commercial, DHL Express India, said, “There is a significantly large cross-border e-commerce opportunity, that this sector can leverage using our e-commerce supply chain solutions. Our vast network of over 220 countries and territories opens the door to expand beyond traditional trade lanes.” Yogesh Bansode, President – International, BVC, said, “BVC is digitising the jewellery industry through its ecosystem of offerings and the DHL partnership expands the shipping solutions.”

To develop a first-of-its-kind, airport based Free Trade Zone (FTZ), on approx. 1.6 acres of land parcel within the Special Economy Zone (SEZ) land of GMR Aerospace & Industrial Park, GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) has signed an Agreement to lease with SpiceJet. The agreement says that GHASL will be constructing a facility for SpiceJet to carry out the warehousing, distribution and trading activity within the Free Trade Warehousing Zone (FTWZ) of multi-product SEZ, popularly known as GMR Aerospace & Industrial Park. This facility will be 33,000 sq ft initially, with a potential to expand to 100,000 sq ft, based on demand. Commenting on this development, Aman Kapoor, CEO, GMR Airport Land Development, says, “Most of the tenants including those in Pharma, Aerospace & Defence, Electronics, Automotive & FMCG will benefit from the availability of high quality warehousing catering to the Export and Import of goods from RGIA.”

In line with the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s (MoCA) Krishi Udan Scheme, GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) has signed a tri-partite MoU with SpiceJet and Ras-Al-Khaimah International Airport (RKT), UAE. The MoU aims at promoting export of agricultural products from India to UAE and neighbouring countries via Hyderabad. As part of this initiative, Hyderabad Airport has collaborated with Spicejet and Ras-Al-Khaimah International Airport to create a dedicated freight corridor to leverage the tremendous agro and farming sector potential from centrally located Telangana and the neighboring regions. The target market for this endeavour includes Dubai, Abudhabi, Sharjah and Bahrain. Specially designed equipment will be used for transportation of goods through the dedicated freighter aircraft of SpiceJet. SGK Kishore, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport, said, “Through this endeavour, we are also collaborating with farmer associations towards enabling a perennial supply of farm products through a dedicated freighter corridor. This MoU will create a robust platform to harness our agricultural markets and help create an entire ecosystem for exporting perishable agro products from Hyderabad.”

Ahmedabad Custom Brokers Association (ACBA) tied up with Logistics Skill Council to impart one day program on ‘Recognition of Prior Learning’ at Ahmedabad. Around 220 candidates from logistics industry had attended this training program and 194 candidates has successfully appeared for examination after completion of session. Samir J. Shah, Ex-Chairman, FFFAI & Chairman, ACBA has explained about the recognition of prior learning and benefits of the same. He also explained the upcoming changes in Indian customs, shipping and logistics. The program not only helped candidates to sharpen their knowledge but get the deep idea of the changing pattern and scenario of logistics Industry in coming time. “ACBA will organise same type of training session in upcoming days for the betterment of logistics industry informs,” Kartik Pancholi, President, ACBA.