‘NLP created cargo demand, scaled multimodal capacity’

Ramanathan Rajamani, CEO, AISATS said, “This year has been defined by a structural reset in global supply chains, and India emerged as one of the most reliable anchors in an otherwise uncertain world. Geopolitical conflicts, disruptions in the Red Sea, and tariff-driven trade realignments pushed companies to diversify sourcing and accelerate the shift toward the China plus one model. As global ocean freight routes faced delays and elevated insurance costs, high-value and time-sensitive commodities increasingly shifted toward air logistics and multimodal solutions, benefiting India’s major cargo gateways. This shift was visible across sectors such as electronics, engineering goods, pharma, perishables, and e-commerce, where India recorded steady growth in export air freight. Airports, such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, saw higher utilisation in their global cargo lanes, driven by global brands deepening their supply chain linkages with India. At the policy level, initiatives, such as PMGS, the NLP, and state-level infrastructure push created a more predictable environment for trade. For us, this translated into more demand across cargo verticals and reinforced the need to scale multimodal capacity, particularly through infra such as the AISATS BLR Logistics Park and our upcoming Integrated Cargo Terminal-phase one of our 87-acre Multimodal Cargo Hub at Noida International Airport.