Category Archives: Aviation

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.

Recently, Airports Authority of India (AAI) data has revealed that international freight movement from Pune airport, which is now left with just two international flights, was just nine metric tonnes (MT) in March as compared to 21MT in February and 39MT in January. National carrier Air India will now start using the transhipment facility at the city airport for international cargo exports. The move could give a much-needed boost to the dwindling export from the facility. “The airline had applied for using the transhipment facility at the Pune airport in connection with international cargo export, which though approved by customs, was still being analysed by the AAI.

SA Consultants & Forwarders has launched Logycode, an e-commerce start-up to make the cost-effective match between exporters and importers on the one hand and air freight carriers on the other. The idea behind the initiative is to create an e-marketplace where customers can shop and ship easily and grow their business efficiently. The platform plans to change the traditional way the customer reaches out for his logistics needs. One of the key objectives is to create a platform that provides the airfreight purchasing industry with real-time instant rates for its buyers. Ashish Asaf, MD & CEO, SA Consultants & Forwarders, says, “The idea is to encourage our industry by simplifying businesses. The present situation is that people are investing a lot of time and money. Our goal is to digitise the industry and simplify processes. This is our value-add to our customers who are doing business with us. Through this platform, we are giving the tools in our customers hand so that they can work faster.”

Spoton Logistics has launched its air express cargo services. With this announcement, the company now offers a range of specialised multi-modal express cargo services to B2B customers, significantly reducing turnaround time for time-sensitive deliveries to over 25,000 pin codes across India. Abhik Mitra, Managing Director and CEO, Spoton Logistics, has said, “The air express service will play a major role in catering to the rising demand for safe and faster deliveries. We expect our new service to act as the cornerstone in increasing our market share and provide competitive advantage to our clients.” The newly-launched Air Express service will be driven by Spoton’s road express pickup and delivery infrastructure and supported by its excellent usage of engineering, data and technology which helps the company deliver greater reliability and consistency to its customers.

To expand its reach in India, Kerry Indev Logistics has launched eight services, each catering to different B2B and B2C segments of the Indian market under the Kerry Indev Express brand. Dr S Xavier Britto, Chairman, Kerry Indev Group, says, “The Express service will enable our company to reach the doorsteps of consumers, thus completing our dream to offer truly end-to-end logistics solutions to them.” The eight pan-India last-mile delivery services launched under the Kerry Indev Express brand are Same Day Express, for guaranteed delivery within 6-8 hours in the same city or between designated cities; Early Express, for guaranteed overnight delivery across designated cities; Priority Package Express, for door-to-door delivery of valuable documents and packages across 200 cities/towns covering 3000 pin codes and expanding to 6,000 pin codes by end 2019; Priority Freight Express – Air, for next-day/committed door-to-door delivery solutions for commercial and urgent shipments to major metros and non-metros; Priority Freight Express – Surface, for a day definite door-to-door delivery solution for commercial and urgent shipments to major metros and non-metros; E-Commerce Business Express, for time-definite deliveries, international courier clearances for cross-border e-commerce services, cash on delivery, drop ship service, reverse logistics; Warehousing Solution Express, for fulfilment centre services and first & last-mile distribution services; Critical Solutions Express, for temperature-controlled distribution, passport and critical documents handling/jewellery cargo handling and clinical trial/biological sample supply chain solutions and other value added services.