I Airport capacity: DIAL continues building up in 2014
IGI Airport, Delhi, has chalked out ambitious plans for cargo operations. Meanwhile, the airport implemented several new facilities for the convenience of shippers and carriers. Sanjiv Edward, Head, DIAL Cargo spoke to
Cargotalk on the recent developments and expectations from the year 2014.
edward maintained that due to economic conditions, cargo growth worldwide has not been encouraging in the past and the impact has been visible at the national level also. There have been instances of negative growth as well, and therefore market conditions are pretty tough to operate in. In Indian context, this is compounded by facts such as exchange rate fluctuations, rising input costs, slower than the expected GDP growth.
“In spite of these challenges we at Delhi International Airport have been able to register growth numbers in international as well as on domestic cargo,” maintained Edward. At Delhi Airport, exports have risen by 11 per cent from 2012, domestic outbound has grown up by 21 per cent, and transshipment has gone up by 25 per cent.
“We are thankful to our customers who have responded extremely positively to the developments we have made in our infrastructure and processes in bringing world standard practices. We are constantly aiming to offer highest levels of service to our customer to give them the competitive advantage and economic value, which becomes more important in tough market conditions,” said Edward.
The DIAL cargo head is optimistic that the airport would see resurgence in economic activity this year, which will have a positive impact on air cargo. He pointed out that the US economy has shown strong signs of turnaround and this would stimulate some of its trade lanes and some economies in EU might come on the revival path with UK, Germany, Ireland, etc. “We have just started to see some positive economic trends while emerging economies like Poland maintaining
a healthy growth thereby giving the industry newer opportunity to do business. UAE is also expected to see healthy growth in its economic development,” he highlighted. According to him, all this would likely to have a positive impact on India’s economy as well and therefore the industry would see stronger demand for logistic services in times to come, giving push to creating sustainable value in Supply Chain.
Edward is also expecting the domestic air cargo business to do well, primarily driven by the e-commerce.
“We are quite positive on our cargo growth plans. Delhi has been recognised by IATA as the first and only airport currently to be e-freight compliant. We believe the IT will play a major role in reducing the processing time. We have already implemented several initiatives eg. electronic LEO, paperless acceptance, etc. The customers are already benefiting from this operational excellence,” said Edward.
Edward commended Customs for implementation of 24x7 customs clearance. He stressed that DIAL is committed to support any initiative that will bring in global practices in India like – actual 24x7 airport operations, adequate processing capacity (currently, it is in excess of processing 1.5 MT per annum), creation of product lines like Pharma/ Perishable Zone with extreme temperature zones and maintaining cool chain from consignor to consignee, Air Freight Stations, road-feeder service, Cargo Village, and Cargo Community System. “We will continue to work with industry to fulfill their needs and provide service as per their requirements and giving them cutting edge in their quest for service and cost advantage,” he added.