Category Archives: Aviation

Air India SATS Airport Services (AISATS) commenced trial operations of India’s first integrated on-airport perishable cargo handling centre, ‘AISATS COOLPORT’, at the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB). The state-of-the-art, 11,000 sq. meter facility will meet the ever-increasing demands and handling requirements of temperature-sensitive cargo and will further enhance the state of Karnataka’s status as the pharmaceutical and perishables hub of India. The facility, with a handling capacity of 40,000 tonnes per annum, will cater to an extensive range of perishable commodities such as pharmaceutical products, fruits, vegetables, poultry, sea food and flowers. It is customised to offer the most comprehensive cold storage solutions with 17 dedicated cold rooms with adjustable temperatures ranging from – 25OC to + 25OC. It is designed as a one stop shop to facilitate the import and export processes of the air cargo industry. The integrated facility will house a state-of-the-art drug controller lab as well as a plant quarantine inspection and certification office. It will be supplemented by temperature controlled queue lanes for unitised shipments and cool trollies to ensure integrity of the cool chain from AISATS COOLPORT to the aircraft and vice versa.

Emirates SkyCargo has also been awarded the certification of compliance under the EU Good Distribution Practice guidelines (GDP) for medicinal products for human use by Bureau Veritas following an audit conducted by the certification agency’s team from Germany. The certification validates the carrier’s adherence to the strict guidelines on the transport and handling of pharmaceutical products and covers all Emirates SkyCargo handling activities for pharmaceutical products at its hub in Dubai. Emirates SkyCargo is the first cargo airline in the world that has obtained GDP certification for its hub operations covering two airports and the 24/7 bonded trucking service that connects cargo between them. The carrier also operates the largest GDP certified area in the world offering a total area of 8,600 square metres of combined handling space dedicated for pharmaceutical products at Dubai International Airport and Dubai World Central.

Emirates SkyPharma, Emirates SkyCargo’s new purpose-built facility dedicated exclusively to the timely and secure transport of temperature sensitive pharmaceutical shipments at Dubai International Airport (DXB) was officially inaugurated on September 18, 2016 by his Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline and Group. The new purpose built Emirates SkyPharma facility, part of the new 11,000 square metre extension of Emirates SkyCentral terminal at Dubai International Airport, offers 4,000 square metres of space dedicated to pharmaceutical cargo. It also features temperature controlled zones (2-8 degree Celsius and 15-25 degree Celsius), 88 temperature controlled individual positions in the automated ULD (aircraft pallet) handling system and 5 temperature controlled acceptance and delivery truck docks. The new Emirates SkyPharma facility at Dubai International airport works in conjunction with Emirates SkyCentral DWC, the carrier’s freighter hub in Dubai World Central which offers 4,600 square metres of dedicated area for pharmaceutical cargo.

Air Cargo Forum (ACF) 2016 is scheduled from October 26-28, 2016 in Paris. Talking about the significance of the biennial event, Sanjiv Edward, Chairman, The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA), “ACF 2016 is the perfect opportunity to promote and launch new products and services and to interact with potential and existing customers, partners and suppliers. It is important because it gives a unique platform to air cargo industry to understand the volatility of global scenario, recognise global issues and address them with concrete steps.” “ACF is also a prospect for global leaders to apprise themselves of latest developments in air cargo, exchange of ideas from broad spectrum; airports, airlines, security experts, and forwarders etc, showcase new technologies,” said Edward.

KWE India has unveiled India’s first Good Distribution Process (GDP) warehouse at the Hyderabad airport cargo satellite building to exclusively handle pharmaceutical logistics. Mineo Suzuki, Managing Director, KWE India, “Strategically located at the country’s pharmaceutical hub, this facility will be utilised to provide logistics support for the pharmaceutical shipments including both export and import trade.” “Set up in non-bonded area, the state-of-the-art facility is equipped with 24×7 temperature ambient control, CCTV, control access, racking, temperature and humidity indicators, alarm system and skilled and trained manpower to follow GDP compliant process throughout shipment handling,” he adds.

The 43rd annual convention of Air Cargo Agents Association of India (ACAAI), scheduled from November 16-19 this year, will be held in Athens, Greece. The theme of the convention is ‘Resurgence of Air Logistics in India’. Explaining about the theme of the convention, Sunil Arora, Secretary General & Chairman Convention, ACAAI, says, “There is a vital need to rejuvenate, resurge and reassess to meet the challenges and be ahead in the race for global preeminence of the skies.”

In the 4th Annual General Meeting of Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI), the association members have elected ACFI’s governing board members for 2016-18. ACFI is committed to develop the air cargo industry by engaging itself proactively with government and other regulatory agencies for simplifying and streamlining procedures and enhancing the level of ease of doing business in India. Tushar K Jani, Chairman, Cargo Service Center is the President, Cyrus Katgara, Partner, Jeena & Company as Vice President, Yashpal Sharma, Director, Skyways Air Services as Hon. Secretary and Ramesh Mamidala, CEO, Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal Management India as Hon. Treasurer. Following are the members of the board: Neera Rawat, ED Cargo, Airports Authority of India (AAI) Abhay Pathak, ED Cargo, Air India (AI) Vipin Kumar Mohla, Director Cargo Sales & Operation, InterGlobe Aviation S. Subramanian, Sr Vice President & Managing Director, DHL Express Arun Kumar, Managing Director, Ensynergy Supply Chain Solution

The air cargo traffic reported healthy y-o-y growth of 9 per cent in June 2016 as against 7 per cent y-o-y growth in May 2016. Harsh Jagnani, Vice President, ICRA, explains, “Though June marks the onset of lean season for passenger movement, the movement in cargo is more aligned to the level of economic activity in the country rather than the season. Given some uptick in economic activities in the country over recent months, growth in cargo traffic has remained robust. Also, the growth has been noticed in most of the top 20 airports in the country again highlighting the uniformity.” International cargo traffic, which constitutes over 60 per cent of overall cargo traffic, reported better growth rate than domestic cargo traffic. International cargo reported y-o-y growth of 10 per cent as against 8 per cent for domestic cargo.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has decided to set up a Committee on Air Cargo Community System headed by Dr Renu S Parmar, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, to develop a uniform and integrated web-based Community Partner Interface System for air cargo in India. The committee comprises the following members:   S. No. Name of the organisation Committee members 1 MoC&I Anil Kumar Sinha, Deputy Director General-NIC (e-trade, Department of Commerce) RK Arora, Addl. GM (System), e-trade 2 AAI Ashwini Sharma, Jt. GM (Cargo) Anirudh Sharma, Jt. GM (IT) 3 Customs BB Mohapatra, Additional Director General Bashistha Prasad, Additional Director 4 DIAL/HIAL Sanjiv Edward, Head-Cargo MD Kala, GM (IT) 5 MIAL Manoj Singh, Vice President & Head Cargo Mayur T, Manager (Cargo) 6 BIAL Pratik Mehta, AGM-Airline Marketing Cargo Services Vinay Varma, Deputy Manager – Cargo Business Development 7 CIAL Pavitthran VP, Senior Manager – Cargo 8 ACAAI Sunil Arora, Secretary General Anil Vazirani, Member, Managing Committee CK Govil, Member, Managing Committee 9 BAR (India) Tarun Minocha, BA Y Taneja, FX 10 FFFAI Vipin Vohra, Convener – Air Freight Council Mahesh Trikha, Ex. Committee Member 11 ACFI KS Kunwar, Director General 12 EICI Vijay Kumar, COO Vimal Rawat (Fedex) 13 Airport Operators Venugopal Bangera, CEO, CSC Venkata Reddy, CEO, Menzies Bobba Ramesh Mamidal, Celebi 14 Non-Scheduled Operators Anil Bal, Fly Jac Ravi Nayar, Sun Aviation 15 Bonded Trucking Agencies BM Dileepa, Shreeji Transport Tushar, Oscar Freight The terms or references of the committee are: •To examine the desirability and feasibility of the ACS. A SWOT analysis would be undertaken based on reports of above teams. •To deliberate on the ‘ownership’ of the ACS and management thereof. •To estimate …

Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal announced the commencement of Envirotainer Stocking Station at the terminal itself. The initiative has been taken to benefit the trade community and extend easy access of Envirotainer cool containers to the customers at the Delhi station. The booking of the containers will be done as per the existing process with Envirotainer. “As a part of our continuous endeavour to improve our cold chain infrastructure in the cargo terminal, we have entered into a collaboration with Envirotainer, who will stock certain number of containers at any point of time in the Delhi facility which will be readily available for usage for the customers with minimal lead time,” informs Ramesh Mamidala, CEO, Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal Management India.