Foreign air cargo players upbeat about industry, to add capacity

Indian air cargo industry does not seem to suffer from the kind of tumultuous upheaval that air passenger industry is subjected to now-a-days. In fact, air cargo movement in the country is going to gather further momentum with international airlines planning to increase their capacities into Indian market.
Carriers from the Middle East like Emirates are expanding to India and are also offering onward connections from the Gulf. Egypt Air, British Airways and some carriers from China are also expected to increase their connections to India.
As part of its expansion, Emirates is stepping up frequencies to New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kochi in a phased manner.
Thanks to these capacity augmentation programme of airlines, industry sources expect, cargo movement will gain momentum with increased capacity to support export of pharmaceuticals, vaccines, garments, chemicals, meat, fruits, vegetables, etc. to Middle East, Africa, Europe and America.
Emirates has recently announced a second round of expansion for India, adding 31 weekly flights to its existing 132 weekly flights by February 2009.
According to aviation sources, several established dedicated cargo carriers are also increasing capacity to India. However, Indian carriers are now not focusing on cargo much as they are in the process of cutting down the capacity.
Leading carriers such as Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines --- which were projecting cargo as one of the main sources of revenue -- are now pulling out capacity by 15% from the international routes.
Despite the downturn in the economy, industry analysts are bullish about air cargo traffic which is adequately fuelled by economy. They are also believe that the advent of dedicated cargo aircraft at international and domestic routes will reduce the share of traffic transported by railways and ships.
The government measure of allowing foreign carriers to take up to 74% stake in cargo airlines is also expected to keep the momentum, they said.
03/11/08 Economic Times

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Categories: Cargo Nov 2008, Foreign Nov 2008, Indian Aviation- In General Nov 2008