Air Cargo Forum India organizes industry conference in New Delhi
Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) organized a conference on the theme “India-Future Air Cargo Leader in South East Asia & Air Cargo Policy – a key facilitator” at hotel Leela Palace in New Delhi on April 10.
Pradeep Singh Kharola, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), chief guest released the ACFI white paper on the occasion. Vandana Aggarwal, economic adviser MoCA, was the guest of honour. The White Paper was published on ‘Potential of Air Cargo logistics Industry and its challenges’ in the event.
“In the last few years, we have emphasized on the fact that the entire value chain is important and we cannot work in silos. The result was laudable; air cargo, in terms of volume, has not only grown double-digit in the last two years. Dwell time, which used to be more than 100 hours, came down to 13 per cent in the first year and 25 per cent in the second year.”
– Pradeep Singh Kharola, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA)
Tushar K Jani, president, ACFI addressing the conference said “Global Aviation Industry is in a high growth trajectory and ushered in an era of rapid expansion. “
“India shall be the 3rd fastest growing economy in the world at the end of 2030 and with the result of this growth Indian Aviation industry will also become the world’s 3rd largest civil aviation in the movement of both passenger and cargo traffic.”
– Tushar K Jani, President, Air Cargo Forum India
He said Air transport is the fastest mode through which the goods can reach from one point to another in just a few hours and the air cargo logistics supply chain is the lifeline and plays a very significant role for successful completion of international trade
Jani, however, said that despite the global continuous growth (over 10% year on year) India’s total annual air freight volume (3.3Million MT) has not reached near any one of the top three world-class airports i.e. Hong Kong 5 Million MT, Memphis 3.56 Million MT & Shanghai 3.26 Million MT in 2017-18.
Lauding the efforts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said the country is marching ahead with its progressive and development policies like, Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, Bharat Mala etc. Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Civil Aviation are playing an instrumental role in framing fruitful policies and procedures which is improving ease of processing in EXIM trade at the gateway airports of the country.
Two brainstorming panel discussions were moderated by Ramesh Mamidala, CEO, Celebi and Yashpal Sharma, MD, Skyways Group at the event. The discussions were carried out on Air Cargo Policy – Role of Infrastructure & Information Technology (IT) and Air Cargo a Key Contributor to the entire value chain in which Cyrus Katgara, Partner, Jeena & Company; Satish Lakkaraju, CCO, Agility and other eminent panelists from India and overseas kept their point of views for the betterment of supply chain processes.
