Category Archives: Aviation

SpiceXpress, the airfreight unit of SpiceJet, has charted an expansion plan that includes increasing its capacity, and taking its services to more destinations within India and overseas. The company aims to eventually service up to 150 destinations in India, Asia and Europe by 2022. SpiceXpress plans to increase its monthly freight carrying capacity from 15,000 tonnes per month to 27,000 tonnes, by the end of 2018. It also plans to further increase its capacity to 90,000 tonnes by the end of 2022 and also plans to add four more freighter aircraft by March 2019. In terms of destinations, the company is looking to take its services to nearly 10 more locations in India and overseas. These include Mumbai, Kolkata and Guwahati in India, and Dubai, Kabul, Dhaka and Singapore. Besides these aircraft, it also offers cargo capacity on SpiceJet’s passenger aircraft fleet. The fleet includes 36 Boeings and 22 Q400s Bombardiers operating across 47 domestic and 7 international locations.

To power the future growth for its end-to-end air cargo and logistics business, IndiGo has partnered with SmartKargo; a cloud-based air cargo management solution. The airline will deploy SmartKargo for its cargo business across all destinations, including domestic and international operations. IndiGo operates on a fleet size of 189 aircraft including 47 new generation A320 NEOs, 127 A320 CEOs and 12 ATRs, across 57 destinations – 48 domestic and nine internationals. Mohan Kash, Managing Director, SmartKargo India, says, “With our unmatched cloud-based technology and out-of-the-box deployment approach, our customers have significant improvements in key performance indicators, in three main areas, i.e. real-time and complete visibility, higher flown and higher yields.” William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo, said, “IndiGo cargo has ambitious plans to grow its revenues and remain competitive in this fast-growing area. We needed to have a state-of-the-art technology platform that was fast to deploy and easy to use. SmartKargo includes the local as well as international features needed for our business. Especially important for us was to adopt to best practices in the air cargo industry and deploying SmartKargo can bring us closer.”

Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal Management India, in collaboration with OM Logistics and GSEC, Ahmedabad Airport, have commenced a dedicated bonded trucking from Ahmedabad to Celebi Terminal Delhi IGI Airport, after the successful launch at Kanpur, Ludhiana, Noida SEZ and Pithampur SEZ1 & SEZ2. The objective is to provide their customers a possibility to move air cargo in an efficient, safe, process driven and cost effective manner. Bonded trucking is relatively a new concept in India and Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal has taken a step forward to start a hub & spoke project. This bonded trucking service will open tremendous opportunities to airlines to solicit business from stations that are offline. Ramesh Mamidala, CEO, Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal Management India, stated, “Now cargo from Gandhinagar, Bhavnagar, Surat, Vadodra and even Indore can be custom cleared at GSEC facility at Ahmedabad Airport and sent to Delhi Airport daily. We hand pick our logistics partners and manage every aspect of the service for commitment, on time performance and transparency to guarantee quality of service to our customers.” “After Ahmedabad, we plan to start bonded trucking from Indore, Jaipur, Durgapur, Pune, Agra, Moradabad and Rishikesh – Roorky belt in 2018. Besides starting temperature-controlled road transport to Delhi from Indore and Ahmedabad, speed, safety and security are the key words that identify our air cargo road bonded service,” added Mamidala.

Coimbatore airport’s cargo department sent an export shipment of 2.5 tonnes of perishable cargo by bonded trucking to Kochi for the first time on September 12. N. Mahalingam, Director, Coimbatore Airport, flagged off the bonded truck with the perishable cargo to Kochi. “We had to send this shipment of perishables, including vegetables like onions and drumsticks, booked to Jeddah by bonded trucking as we have only passenger airlines flying out internationally,” said S. Subramanian, Senior Manager (Air Cargo). “Perishables, including vegetables, fruits and flowers, constitute 50 per cent of Coimbatore airport’s export volume, which is around 350 tonnes a year. There are space constraints because all international flight flying out of the city are relatively smaller and cargo space is available only after passengers are allocated their luggage space. On the other hand, Kochi has wide-bodied aircraft like the Boeing 747, which despite being a passenger flight can accommodate such a sizeable shipment,” he said.

The Chennai airport made way for the giant Antonov AN-124 aircraft, operated by a Russian freight company Volga-Dnepr Airlines, which landed in the city with 53.46 tonne of machinery from Xi’an Xianyang in China. The whole freight was unloaded and had to be carried on 13 trucks. This is first time an An-124 aircraft landed at Chennai airport with considerable amount of payload. Since the airport is a major gateway to south India, such hauls are expected to be a regular occurrence in future . AN-124 aircraft is designed for long-range delivery and air dropping of heavy and large-size cargo, including machines, equipment and troops and has got a payload capacity of up to 150 tonnes. AN-124 is 69.1-metre-long and has an extensive wingspan of 73.3 metre.

SpiceJet has unveiled dedicated air cargo services and inducted first freighter aircraft in its fleet, making it the first scheduled domestic airline in the country to diversify into the airfreight market. The airline has also created a separate division called ‘SpiceXpress’. Ajay Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, SpiceJet, shares, “We are very confident that there is a significant space for dedicated air freighter in the Indian market. The economy is growing at eight per cent and we are having an e-commerce boom in this country.” “The airline will initially start operations on the Delhi-Bengaluru route but will also look at Guwahati, Hong Kong, Amritsar and Kabul. The airline plans to induct four Boeing freighters this year, which will see the airline offering haulage of 27,000 tonnes per month from the current 15,000 tonnes. The new venture will be a division of SpiceJet. Initially, we will operate two Boeing 737-700s and two Boeing 737-800s,” Singh added. Currently, SpiceJet has a cargo capacity of 500 tonnes a day which is mostly as a result of the cargo carried in the belly of the 58-passenger aircraft it operates.

Air India SATS Airport Services (AISATS) has launched a new shipment tracking platform that uses Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology for its cargo handling operations at the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru. The company will be the first air cargo terminal operator in India to initiate real-time and improved cargo tracking. This technological initiative is a collaboration between AISATS and its Singapore-listed joint venture stakeholder, SATS Ltd., which operates an unrivalled network of gateway services and food solutions in over 60 cities across Asia. With AISATS being the biggest ground handler at Kempegowda International Airport and managing two dedicated cargo handling centers, namely the AISATS Air Freight Terminal and the AISATS COOLPORT, the introduction of RFID technology will enable AISATS to undertake real-time cargo tracking for end-to-end visibility and faster turnaround. The RFID tracking system, capable of processing large quantities of cargo, will further bolster speed and accuracy, thereby making the cargo handling process more secure.

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has bagged Indian Air Force’s (IAF) ‘SPEEDEX’ (The Stores, Proactive, Efficient and Expeditious Despatch of Extra Size/ Wt Consignment) Cargo contract for ‘Surface Transportation’ of consignment weighing above 35 kgs for ‘door-to-door delivery’. The service launch and agreement was signed in the presence of Air Marshal RKS Shera, AVSM VSM, Air Officer- in-charge Maintenance and Ravneet Kaur, IAS, CMD, ITDC; Piyush Tiwari, Director (C&M), ITDC, along with senior officials of both the organisation at the Air Force Headquarters (Vayu Bhawan), New Delhi. According to the contract, ITDC’s travel arm, Ashok Travels and Tours, will ensure safe, reliable and secure movement of the Indian Air Force Surface cargo. The scope includes handling the consignments (collection and delivery) between IAF units located all over India. There are over 130 stations spread across the country. It will enhance support to Indian Air Force maintenance activities and improve operational preparedness, in the long run. Ashok Travels and Tours has been actively involved in cargo handling through surface, air as well as sea. In the recent times, ATT has handled several cargo consignments for defence forces.

Emirates SkyCargo has announced over 175 tonnes flood relief cargo to Kerala, India, joining the UAE community in their support for rebuilding the state.  Over more than a dozen flights of the air cargo operator will transport the relief goods, which have been donated by various UAE-based businesses and organisations, to Thiruvananthapuram – the nearest online Emirates station to the area’s most affected by the flood. The goods, including lifesaving boats, blankets and dry food items, will be handed over to the local flood relief and aid organisations for distribution.

Air Freight Institute (AFI) of FIATA shall conduct a conducive platform highlighting the opportunities and challenges in the air cargo industry across the globe at the FIATA World Congress (FWC) 2018. The session will be moderated by veteran air cargo personality Snehal Parikh, Managing Director, Lemuir Group. Panel speakers shall include Vandana Aggarwal, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India; Kirsten De Bruijn, VC, Cargo Pricing and Interline-Revenue Operations, Emirates SkyCargo; Ashwin Bhat, Head Swiss WorldCargo; Andrea Gruber, Head – Special Cargo, IATA and Bill Gottlieb, Past President, FIATA. Andrea will provide insight on the information on the latest development in the framework of transport of temperature sensitive healthcare and pharmaceutical products, how the industry is responding to the CEIV Pharma Certification programme, the next key industry priorities and future developments in the airfreight industry.