Freighter fleet expected to rise in India in 2023

Mahesh Malik, Chief Commercial Officer – CarGo, IndiGo, shared his predictions for 2023 and said, “We are evaluating various opportunities available in this sector. Recently, we commenced domestic operations of our first A321 Freighter aircraft between Delhi and Mumbai, carrying 20 tons of general and e-commerce CarGo and our first international A321 P2F freighter flight between Kolkata and Yangon on November 22, 2022, with the payload of more than 19,000 kg. In general, Indian airlines are increasing their cargo capacity with the segment emerging as a critical and promising revenue stream. The dedicated freighter fleet of India has seen a dramatic rise to 28 aircraft from 5 over the last few years. As demand increases the number of freighter fleet is expected to rise as airlines in India are looking to add dedicated aircraft for cargo operations. The cargo operations across the aviation industry fared better than passenger segment amid the pandemic and helped the aviation industry stay afloat. Our plan is to develop a profitable network which will include expanding to international destinations such as Hong Kong and Vietnam. However, we will continue to build a robust CarGo network domestically and focus on expansion to tier II- III cities through our fleet of passenger narrow body aircraft.”