Amidst the crisis of the pandemic, Air Cargo has been strong on the pillars with the help of strong infrastructure, equanimity, robust versatility business model and innovation, shared Vandana Aggarwal, IES, Senior Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation in a Virtual Conference organized by the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on “Air Cargo Sector Transformation-Way Forward”.
The conference witnessed prominent names of the industry come together and deliver rich insights on the performance and importance of the air cargo industry amidst the unforeseen cirumstances leashed upon by the pandemic.
“With the initiatives undertaken by Indian enterprises, we can say that Indian enterprises are beginning to look towards the future and find ways forward that transform their business in these changing times.”
~Vandana Aggarwal, IES, Sr. Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation
Talking about the initiatives undertaken by the Government of India, she mentioned that despite the challenging times, the government has ensured the swift movement of carriage on passenger aircraft by increasing dedicated freighters and ensuring the swift movement of cargo at airports. She highlighted that we grew hugely in the export of agriculture produce.
Keku Bomi Gazder, CEO-AAICLAS, AAI Cargo Logistics, and Allied Services Company Ltd shed light on how COVID-19 helped in the rearranging of business engineering, understanding process simplification, lifestyle disruption, identifying and mitigating risks.
Talking about mitigating risks, he mentioned that it is important to understand, appreciate, deliberate, and find ways to ensure that we don’t face similar risks in the future. The risk we faced had been related to infrastructure; cyber and IT; physiological fear of COVID-19; business continuation; operational; communication and skilling and, reskilling of the team. One needs to ensure that we need to resolve these risks in such a way that we are ready to take any challenge in the future and help the industry to meet the demand of the nation, he asserted.
While speaking about going digital, Cyrus Katgara, Partner, Jeena & Company & President, Air Cargo Forum India said that the luggage section is ready to go digital but, to go digital it will take some time. He said that the block and piece is ready in terms of digitalisation but embracing the true spirit of digitalisation cannot be possible without exporters and, he urged PHD Chamber to take a lead on it to embrace it.
The event also witnessed brainstorming of vital opinions and information amongst key industry stalwarts who delivered important insights on the importance of air cargo. It was also participated by Steven Polmans, Chairman of TIACA & Director Cargo & Logistics, Business Development, Brussels Airport, Satyaki Raghunath, Chief Strategy and Development (S&D) Officer Bangalore, International Airport Limited (BIAL), Sanjiv Edward, Chief Commercial Officer & EVP, Delhi International Airport Ltd & Secy, Air Cargo Forum India sharing his insights on India’s first transshipment center and building a strong pillar of infrastructure by adapting to innovations which were pivotal for air cargo and working on a system of processes driven by digitalization.
Mr Edward shared how the Delhi Airport has handled the transportation of a lot of medical supplies and adapted to the changes in a speedy manner.
“Our main goal has been on connecting global airports for connecting with the global supply chain, especially in the Asian market.”
~Roland Weil, VP Sales Cargo, Frankfurt Airport
The conference was moderated by Bhavna Singh, Joint Secretary, PHD Chamber. The conference was supported by Celebi Delhi Cargo Terminal Management India Pvt. Ltd; Jeena & Co Ltd and Cargo Flash and was attended by any esteemed industry stalwarts from across India.
