‘Sensitize stakeholders to empathize with business community’

“The sudden closure of International Air Cargo Terminals as well as Common User Domestic Cargo Terminals by the order of BCAS on Dec 30th 2022 came as a big surprise to the Shippers/Consignees/Agents who suffered huge avoidable losses. No time or advance notice was given to them to look for the alternative, neither by the Service Providers nor by the Regulatory body. Taking a deep dive into the root cause looking for immediate solution, I presume the Terminal Operators and the Airlines are not able to apply or get the RA status owing to the acute shortage of trained X-Ray Screeners in the market as well as the X-ray machines and the unviable economics of providing both. Although the regulatory requirements, protecting all security aspects, need to be in place, yet these could be made little flexible to allow the stakeholders pool their resources or outsource to a third party at all locations, especially smaller Airports, in the best interest of all concerned stakeholders. Whether it was a lapse on part of the Terminal Operators or Airlines or Authorities, all the stakeholders need to be sensitized to empathize with the business community to avoid such colossal losses to them,” says Sushant Nigam, ED, ACAAI.