Air cargo biz must grow at 12.9% to meet target

India’s cargo industry needs to grow at about 12.9 per cent every year to achieve the National Civil Aviation Policy vision of reaching 10 million tonnes ( MT) cargo volume by 2027, said a study by Assocham and consultancy firm Auctus Advisors on Sunday.

“There is an urgent need to uplift the Indian cargo market to achieve the overall vision of the aviation ministry,” it said.

Assocham said international and that domestic air freight is projected to grow at an overall compounded annual growth rate of 8.2 per cent.

“Considering this trend to continue till 2027, projected international and domestic air cargo will be 3.6 MT and 2.1 MT respectively resulting in total air cargo traffic of 6.8 MT.”

Assocham said that the study highlighted various issues confronting aviation logistics sector in India — lack of enabling infrastructure, lack of automated material handling systems, high manual intervention in the processes and inadequate ■ skilled manpower among others where the Indian air cargo industry lags global peers.

“There is an urgent need for creating adequate freight carrying capacity within Indian air network through creation of new cargo terminals and expansion of existing ones,” said the chamber.

Assocham suggested implementing a rating system for cargo terminals inline with ASQ ( Airport Service Quality) ratings at passenger terminal to motivate operators to improve infrastructure and provide superior quality of services.

It also suggested undertaking pro- active measures to identify tier- 2 and tier- 3 cities for setting up common user domestic cargo terminal ( CUDCT).

On development of air freight station ( AFS), the chamber said there is an urgent need for a clear cut, well- defined policy to initiate AFS ecosystem which would help in stimulating export- import trade.

“Promoting concept of cargo villages and linking them with international airports is an ideal way to boost air freight traffic, improve delivery and create many job opportunities. Besides, cargo villages may also be linked to free trade zones to foster goods’ manufacturing for international markets which would give a boost to ‘ Make in India,’ scheme of the government,” it said.