Following a hard-hitting keynote address in Mumbai earlier this year, where he lamented India’s lack of infrastructure and suggested that most cargo volumes to and from India should be handled at Dubai and Singapore, Emirates’ senior vice president cargo, Ram Menen must have been delighted to hear that his ideas apparently did not fall on deaf ears.

During a recent visit to Washington, Praful Patel, India’s minister of civil aviation, was quoted as saying that:"Our primary focus is to fi rst work activelyon the infrastructure front. Oneof the problems is that the countrydoes not have airline hubs, and doesnot fully use all of its airports."

He also noted that most of the country’s international airline traffi c "comes through Dubai and Singapore and we need to correct that." Patel announced at the Washington meeting that much of the government’s aviation/infrastructure development plans will be released in a couple of months in its Vision 2020 document."We want new greenfi eld airports across the country," said Patel. And cargo could very well lead the way, he noted. "We want cargo facilities everywhere. FedEx, UPS and the rest should all look to India."

The statements must be music to the ears of Menen, who doesn’t mind to be copied, even if it is by a transportation minister.