Indian air cargo businesses are finally staring at the revival of the sector and might soon exceed expectations in terms of capacity and demand.
To talk about the future and opportunities for Air Cargo, Logistics Insider brought together a high-octane LinkedIn Live Show – “Indian Air Cargo Market Gathering Steam” – powered by Jeena and Company.
The discussion saw power-packed exchanges among the panelists- Cyrus Katgara, President at ACFI, Saurabh Kumar, CEO, GMR Hyderabad Air cargo, William Boulter, CCO at Indigo(interGlobe Aviation Ltd) and Abhay Pathak, Air cargo Expert & Former Executive Director(Cargo), Air India.
Prediman Koul, Executive Director and Board Member at Jeena and Co, was the moderator of the power-packed discussion who kept the show running with his insightful and pertinent questions.
Mr Katgara talked about the opportunities ahead, underlining how airports rose to the occasion in providing cold storage and additional capacity. He highlighted the importance of Air Cargo as the best means of transport.
“Today Air Cargo is about safety and speed and not only about costs. So, let us open this topic and market air cargo not as an emergency product but as a product for the supply chain.”
~Cyrus Katgara, President at ACFI
Mr Boulter talked about the present state of air cargo, catering to the rising demand and how auto manufacturing, electronics and other commodities like Fashion and Retail are coming back to stability. He also expressed his optimism for what lay ahead.
“India is a very self sufficient economy compared to other economies but its proportion of exports is very low, but I think it will grow pretty fast and we have seen recent figures indicate that, both in Pharma, engineering and other commodities. I think that’s the opportunity for Indian carriers maybe to take freighter capacity.”
~William Boulter, CCO at Indigo( InterGlobe Aviation Ltd)
Abhay Pathak talked about the problems in ocean freight and India’s role in the macro level, especially that of the aviation industry.
“Any transport business is only successful and cost-effective, when you have a load from both sides”, he said.
“For augmenting exports, infrastructure needs to be in place.”
~Abhay Pathak, Air cargo Expert & Former Executive Director(Cargo), Air India
Mr Kumar talked about the tumultuous task ahead and how India’s logistics setup will have to pull off the world’s largest inoculation drive.
He also highlighted the significance of packaging the vaccines..
While talking about stakeholders being prepared enough, he stated, “they are all ready and have already started delivering”.
“In anticipation of the fact that the vaccines are coming, in the past 2-3 months, the capacity has been realigned and augmented at Hyderabad airport to make sure that vaccine capacity is maximised.”
~Saurabh Kumar, CEO, GMR Hyderabad Airport
“For aircargo, it is clear that airports, airlines, freight forwarder community,regulators and government are aware of what is required to transport the vaccines.”
To watch the full video, click here.
