Improvise infrastructure and cost efficiency

and regulators for better air cargo supply chain procedures Bringing down the logistics costs Hassle-free road transportation for seamless domestic network DFCs throughout Indian geography to be planned and expedited with excellent connectivity to airports Increased participation of air cargo stakeholders: • De-congest existing infrastructure through optimum utilisation of 24x7 operations Electronic standardisation of air cargo related documents Infrastructure development, automation, security and safety compliance must be adapted by all air cargo stakeholders Exporters/importers and transporters need to be included in air cargo stakeholder community for framing effective supply chain an Will NCAP helps?

With the New Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) there is a great opportunity for foreign players to invest more in the country, will it help making India as a successful transhipment and consolidation hub? Commenting on the same, Katgara says, “The foreign investors can bring their technology and expertise and use cheap labour and resources to make a cost effective transshipment hub as an alternative to existing ones.”

“But before any other plan we need to put our act together to simplify the procedures and create a framework for seamless cargo operations not only for transshipment cargo but our regular exports and imports too,” Katgara adds.

“The NCAP permits 100 per cent FDI in Greenfield Projects and 74 per cent FDI in Brownfield Projects under automatic route. FDI beyond 74 per cent for Brownfield Projects is under government route. These along with the change in 5/20 rule will give sizable boost to Indian skies,” points Sharma.

“NCAP is talking about simplifying custom and other regulatory process with SLAs clearly defined for every stakeholder, which will help smooth functioning of transshipment movement promoting ramp-to-ramp transfer cargo, ultimately leading to consolidation and creating of air cargo hub,” shares Bangera.

Gandhi believes, “It will certainly help both Indian and foreign players to add more capacity in India”, and added, “Reforms of regulatory policies are always welcome and will certainly witness a major growth.”

“Foreign players will invest and this will help to create world class infrastructure and better facilities for cargo hubs,” Harit opines. More freighters: Boon or bane?

According to Bangera, it is right time for Indian airlines to start freighters services; with the GST bill getting cleared, it paves way for increase in usage of air cargo, added to it will be the GDP growth forecasted which will see increase in the manufacturing and trading activity. There will enough cargo to be moved and Indian airlines can capitalise by starting freighter services.

On the contrary, Katgara feels this is not the right time for Indian airlines to start operating freighter. “We do not have the critical minimum mass to support freighters. They need to improve the reliability of the freight services by bringing in 98 per cent flown as booked performance in order to attract critical minimum mass of cargo by improving its share of both exports and imports.”

“Freighters are slowly making a comeback on the global scale but the overall demand has decreased substantially. Newer airplanes like the B777, A350-1000 have better belly space and the increase in passenger traffic has already created a favorable belly capacity in the market. Freighters can only be planned on high demand routes. The regional connectivity scheme of NCAP 2016 might create strong demand for domestic freighters, and newer markets are likely to open up with commercial operations at smaller airports. A careful demand planning has to be done by airlines before they start operating domestic freighters,” stresses Gandhi.

NCAP will certainly help both Indian and foreign players to add more capacity in India. Reforms of regulatory policies are always welcome For successful hub-andspoke model, ‘bank of flights’ needs to be implemented. Indian carriers should also start using wide body aircrafts to SAARC countries We must learn from overseas hubs that cargo infrastructure is much more than the cargo terminal, but also includes special facilities

“Airlines across the world have been finding difficult to run freighters. The current rate levels, increase in belly capacity of some new aircrafts, etc are making running of freighters as non-viable,” opines Sharma.