‘Flight disruptions squeeze cargo capacity, agents may opt for road’

Sunil Kohli, Managing Director, Rahat Cargo said, “An unprecedented cancellation of flights of IndiGo did considerably impact domestic cargo movement, especially time-bound and temperature sensitive products such as pharma & fresh vegetables, across the country. And consequently such flight disruptions are bound to have its cascading effect towards demand of space on other available carriers which are just a few and thus may not cater to the required supply of space due to limited belly capacity. Resultantly, the shippers may have limited options either to curtail the cargo movement by air or opt for road transport. Hence there is need for robust contingency plans and reduced dependence on a single airline. The market also needs dedicated freighters (like narrow-body ones for Tier II/III cities) to meet the demand effectively. Issues such as airport congestion & inefficient handling also need to be addressed. All stakeholders are expected to optimise the available resources and systems to yield the desired productivity, the space constraints notwithstanding.”