AIR CARGO 'Vision 2035' Will Kickstart Domestic Cargo

Once the blueprint on ways to deal with infrastructure constraints in the aviation sector is ready, air cargo will take a quantum leap with domestic connectivity

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Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu’s announcement that a blueprint was under preparation for ways to deal with infrastructure constraints in the aviation sector was received with enthusiasm by air cargo stakeholders. Named the ‘Vision 2035’, the roadmap for growth will not only look at enhancing and improving existing airports and runways but also the development of unserved and underserved airports. This would be especially helpful for the government’s ambitious UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik or “Let the common citizen fly”) initiative that seeks to boost air connectivity to small cities and towns. Incidentally, Vision 2035 will also provide a clear plan on cargo infrastructure development.

Coming as it does on the cusp of the civil aviation sector’s phenomenal 19 per cent annual growth in the last four years, Vision 2035, according to air cargo stakeholders, has been a welcome move though a tad delayed. They point out that infrastructure moves to accommodate an additional 2 million metric tonnes to meet the projected air cargo demand (cargo handling capacity of airports: 4.63 million tonnes) in the next five years — have been taken with the government planning to invest around $13300 million for infra projects at airports that includes air cargo facilities. Already 21 common user domestic cargo terminals have been put up by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at its airports. Significantly, moves are on to reduce cargo release time to two days for air imports and only one day for exports.