During the year 2008-09, all operational Indian airports together saw a negative growth of -1 per cent when compared with the corresponding period of 2007-08. Compound growth rate, over the past five years, indicates that international and domestic cargo has been increasing annually at the rate of 10.6 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively, which accounts for 9.7 per cent compound growth rate for total cargo traffic at all Indian airports over the past five years.
Following the recent launch of Deccan 360, with eight freighters, another new cargo carrier, Aryan Cargo Express Pvt Ltd, has announced the start of operations with three Airbus A310 freighters early next year. The launch is expected some time between 15 January and 1 February 2010 because the period between February and March is the traditional peak season for Indian air cargo.
The carrier said it planned to increase its fleet size to 12 aircraft by the second year of operations, including an upsize to A330-200F aircraft, with flights planned from India to China, Southeast Asia, south and central Asia, Europe, Middle East, and north and east Africa. Destinations planned in the first year are understood to include Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Frankfurt, Belgrade and Nairobi.
The Airports Authority of India (AAI), which manages 124 airports in the country, has been putting substantial effort into enhancing cargo operations, including opening up more domestic airports for international air cargo. In a bid to enhance the tonnage of perishables, Centres for Perishable Cargo had been established at Delhi, Mumbai (both with the private holders of the airports), Chennai, Kolkata, Amritsar and Trivandrum airports. In addition, cold storage facilities had also been put up in a number of airports.
