Newstrack

Air India Cargo to add two more aircraft by mid-2008

Chetan Kapoor - Mumbai

P K Gupta Executive Director Sales and marketing (Cargo)

Air India Cargo (AIC), a strategic business unit (SBU) of Air India is looking at converting two A310 passenger aircraft to freighters and inducting them in their operations between July- September 2008.

Speaking to Express AviationWorld, P K Gupta, executive director - sales and marketing (Cargo), Air India, said, "Cargo is an emerging industry today, which is why AIC came about. Until now, we didn't have dedicated freighters to carry cargo and would depend on the empty belly space, but now things are changing and we already have two passenger aircraft converted into freighters and will be converting another two A310s and inducting around mid-2008. However, there is scope for more synergies between passenger aircraft and freighters to carry load"

Gupta is of the opinion that the level of exports and imports have equalised to an extent, thus resulting in a boost in revenues and more dedicated freighters being introduced in the market. "China and India is the buzzword for growth and have the highest exports, and there has been 25 per cent growth in the cargo segment as compared to 10-12 per cent in the passenger segment," he stated.

AIC is also in constant dialogue with the customs for separate warehouses for domestic and international cargo and is examining markets such as the United States, Europe and China. Gupta added, "No aviation market can reach a saturation point and it will continue to grow. While we are conducting a market research of these countries, there exists certain unidirectional balances such as the exports and imports being uneven, in which case we have to evaluate if it is worth taking no load one way and also the routing may be completely different or similar to the passenger aircraft."

The Nagpur airport, Gupta believes will be a multi-nodal hub for cargo. Load from various parts of the country will assemble at Nagpur and the freighters will either operate from Nagpur or be sent to Mumbai to be flown out. "We are obviously looking at growth with the additional capacity and high demand and supply. Accordingly we will definitely lease, convert or buy more freighters and with other airlines entering cargo, the competition will only bring out the best in us," concluded Gupta.