Air freight traffic ends descending orders

New Delhi: This could be yet another indicator of the economy getting into revival mode. The steep fall in the domestic air freight traffic has been arrested with March registering a decline of 2.4% as against nearly 11% in the previous month, according to Airports Authority of India (AAI). Chennai and Coimbatore saw freight volume growing in this period.The total freight traffic (international and domestic) handled by Indian airports decreased by 4.5% to around 1.5 lakh tonnes in March 2009 compared to the freight handled March ’08. International freight traffic registered a decrease of 5.5% during March this year.
Rail, road and air cargo traffic fell in the last few months due to the slowdown. Signs of recovery are visible in all the three sectors on the back of the stimulus packages. “There has been some recovery in the domestic air cargo segment with improvement in the manufacturing sector. The growth is mainly in automotive part and pharma industries. We expect that in the next three to four months market will stabilise,” Gati International chief international business officer Sameer Khatri said.
Sensing a big business opportunity, Air Deccan founder G R Gopinath has launched the air freight carrier Deccan 360 degree. The air freight movement exceeded expectations during 2004-07. The segment, however, registered 1% dip in volume to 16,97,000 tonnes due to the slowdown in 2008-09.
21/05/09 Nirbhay Kumar/Economic Times

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Categories: Cargo May 2009