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In an update from Airport Authority of India (AAI), Air Vistara’s first nonstop flight from Pune to Singapore – an Airbus A321 Neo – took off recently, and transported the maiden cargo shipment consisting of 1,650 kg fresh, assorted Indian fruits & vegetables, from the source to the destination. The almost 8 hour flight is scheduled to operated four times a week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
“It is an encouraging and positive moment for all of us to start this international cargo service from Pune to Singapore through this flight. All the arrangements and necessary facilities for cargo services are there at Pune airport and its current capacity for the Singapore flight is up to 2 tonnes of cargo goods. Hopefully in future, this cargo service will run to its full capacity.”
Santosh Doke, Director, Pune Airport
While this is just the beginning of international cargo services from Pune to Singapore, traders and industrialists are demanding that the capacity of cargo services at Pune airport be increased in line with the market demand, along with adding an increased number of destinations to flight schedules.
In that direction, the AAI is being said to operate a novel cargo facility at the Airport starting early 2023, which will bring the capacity to 36,000 tonnes at the airport premises. The operations at the new cargo facility will be monitored by ‘AAI Cargo Logistics and Allied Services Company’.
Doke said, “We have started the work of shifting the old cargo terminal to the new place within the airport premises and hopefully by March 2023, the new cargo facility space will be operational. Once the cargo facility is completely shifted to this new space, the capacity of daily cargo transportation will increase considerably and we can also connect with more domestic and international destinations.”
