Category Archives: Aviation

Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) has launched Advance Air Cargo Handling Training Programme in the capital. The programme was launched by Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati, Minister of Civil Aviation, Government of India in the presence of more than 125 numbers including senior government officials, members from various trade bodies and representatives of entire air cargo logistics industry. The programme is aimed to benefit the air cargo industry in India contributing to Government of India’s Skill India plans.

Agility has moved into a new larger office premises in Vadodara. The new office was inaugurated Detlev Janik, CEO, South Asia, Agility, in the presence of various existing customers, partners and senior management of Agility in India. The new office will allow Agility to cater to the ever-growing volumes & business opportunities in the Vadodara market. The facility will also enable the customers to access the various logistics services offered by the company in India. Janik, said, “Vadodara is a very important market for Agility in India. In the coming years, it is the tier 2 & tier 3 cities which will drive the next wave of growth in India. Hence tapping further business in these cities in India is also part of our growth strategy.”

At the 11th World Cargo Symposium opened in Abu Dhabi, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) called on the air cargo industry to accelerate modernisation and focus on delivering high quality service. “Listening to the customer has never been more important. The positive forces currently supporting growth are good news. But our customers are telling us that they expect more. Complicated and convoluted paper-based processes that are basically unchanged from the 16th century is still being used in air cargo today. Our customers pay a premium to ship by air and they rightly expect modern processes and high quality services,” said Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, IATA.

The 11th World Cargo Symposium 2017 opened at a remarkable note in Abu Dhabi. The symposium is meeting at a time of thoughtful optimism which is far too rare in the air cargo industry. After several years of virtually no growth, the industry is starting to see demand pick up. Freight volumes began to grow in the second half of 2016. And the momentum is carrying over into this year with January demand rising nearly seven per cent over the previous year. Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO has shared a clear vision of how that historical role continues to manifest itself. “It is great to see such forward thinking at the highest levels of government on the strategic benefits of aviation to the national economy,” he adds.

Agility has opened the first temperature-controlled life sciences storage and handling facility in the Hyderabad Airport Zone. The company’s 6,000-square-foot Life Sciences Excellence Center (LSEC) at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport is strategically placed to serve pharma manufacturers in Hyderabad, Goa, Pune, Vishakhapatnam and Bangalore. The centre will provide conditioning, preparation and storage of pharmaceutical goods and operate as a control tower for Agility life sciences customers in India. The LSEC will house va-Q-tec’s inventory, perform quality checks, conditioning and preparation of containers, and box packaging for va-Q-tec’s products before the release of packaging for customers.

After recently completing 45 years of uninterrupted service to the Indian subcontinent, Ethiopian Airlines has announced that it will expand its India operations further by adding Ahmedabad to its network. Esayas Woldemariam Hailu, Managing Director (International Services), Ethiopian Airlines, said, “We are very happy to celebrate this milestone of 45 years uninterrupted service to Mumbai, which was one of our earliest destinations and is one of our strongest markets in Asia today. We have plans to expand our operations in India for cargo. We have finalised our preparation to launch freighter operation to Ahmedabad in the month of March 2017. We have contributed our part in forging closer investment, trade and people-to-people ties between Africa and India.” The airline is currently operating New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bengaluru. Hailu added, “We don’t have a specific date yet for the new service. But we know that we will be operating our brand-new Boeing 777 on this route that has a capacity of 100 tonnes.”

PC Sharma, CEO and whole time director, TCIEXPRESS, notes, “The budget allocation of Rs 39,61,354 crore on infrastructure development and of selected airports in Tier 2 & 3 cities will help us penetrate in strategic and remote locations, enhancing our services in those regions as well. The focus on infrastructure development in the budget will contribute towards the exponential growth of logistics industry, as it will help in robust operations and efficient deliveries, particularly for the express delivery sector. We are also optimistic about the timely implementation of GST, which was also mentioned in the budget.”

Expressing hope, Sarini Sachdeva, CEO, Aardour Worldwide Logistics says, “The announcement of Rs 39,61,354 crore on infrastructure development will help the logistics industry to grow much faster. Today, infrastructure forms the major reason that logistics industry is lagging behind.” “Moreover, for any country, air connectivity to undeserved and unserved regions could provide impetus to economic development and growth of such regions, and contribute to a more uniform and equitable growth in economic activity across the country. Per capita flights in India is about 0.08 compared with around 2.5 and three in the US and the UK, respectively. India has about 450 airports and airstrips but only 75 have scheduled operations, as per the recently unveiled national civil aviation policy,” she informs. “Around 66.5 per cent of India’s total air traffic comes from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad airports. These six cities would require new airports by 2025-26 and in some cases, much earlier. Currently, cargo from smaller airports fly to big cities. Once the smaller airports became viable the industries in Tier 2 and Tier 3 will also flourish,” Sachdeva adds.

Ravinder Katyal, Director Air Freight & Co-Load – ISC, DSV Air & Sea, says, “This Union Budget will allow businesses to run through, closer by airports and thereby decentralise the process and save the logistics cost. However, we really need to review that will the investment of Rs 39,61,354 crore on infrastructure development help improve the commercial/cargo facilities or not and the development of Tier II Airports on PPP mode will be for cargo also or only for passenger terminals. (If the same happens for cargo too, this will help better control or lower logistic cost and automatically time will be saved as the facilities will be close to their manufacturing hubs).”

Talking about his anticipation from budget 2017-18, says Bharat Thakkar, Past President and Permanent Member – Board of Adviser, ACAAI & Co-Founder, Zeus Air Services, says, “ACAAI has met with Justice R. V. Easwar and made submissions on simplification of income tax, wherein the issues of withholding tax and tax deducted at source on freight difference by airlines have been explained. Thereafter, this matter has also been submitted to Hon’ble Minister of Finance, Secretary, Department of Finance including Prime Minister’s office (PMO) for appropriate action in line of ease of doing business.” The proposed Goods and Service Tax (GST) is needed but with few recommendations such as international transportation of goods including freight forwarding and ancillary services in relation to international transportation of goods such as customs clearance, warehousing, storage, cargo handling, packing, unitisation, etc. should be zero rated. Then, the concept of centralised PAN-based registration must be retained, whereby any service provider in the international transportation segment can have a centralised registration and discharge applicable tax through the GST Portal. Further, it has been recommended that the tax payer should be centrally registered at the principal place of business or registered office and undertake compliance from the central location for all activities throughout the country. The place of supply for international transportation of goods, freight forwarding and related services should be the location of the billing address of the recipient of the services as specified in the invoice issued by the service provider. It is not understood why ease of doing business is being side tracked dual and registration is being introduced The credit should be based on the invoice raised by the service provider without insisting on the …