Record cargo exports at Trichy Airport

The Trichy airport has handled the highest ever volume of cargo in March with the total amount of exports and imports standing at 395 tonnes. The volume was more than the previous highest of 313 tonnes achieved in January.

All the cargo handled were for exports and the imports accounted for only dead bodies and airline stores, and hence the Airports Authority of India's cargo terminal does not keep a separate statistics for imports. Fifty per cent of the exports were handled by the Sri Lankan carriers (SriLankan Airlines and Mihin Lanka) alone that together operate 18 services a day from Trichy to Colombo, while the contribution of Indian carriers was nil. However, a total of 2929 tonnes were exported during the 2012-13 financial year, a growth of 44% from the previous fiscal during which it had exported 2022 tonnes.

An AAI source said the spurt in the growth was partly due to the tightening of checks over unauthorized carrying of large amount of cargo as personal baggage. Though normally a passenger is allowed to carry around 20 to 30 kg depending upon the airline, airlines operating from Trichy airport were very liberal and the passengers were allowed to carry up to 80 to 100 kg as personal baggage, the source confided. Since there are payload restrictions in each aircraft depending upon its size, allowing passengers to carry unrestricted volume of personal baggage reduced the cargo space. Frequent fliers preferred to carry even perishables as personal baggage to avoid the labyrinthine route of availing quarantine clearance, production of valid export licence and fulfilling other customs' formalities. Customs is in fact more bothered about regulating the imports than exports and airline operators on their part are more concerned about increasing the occupancy rate in each flight, he claimed.

Trichy has also gained the dubious reputation of being a preferred point for transiting contrabands and other items like ketamine. On March 26, a man and woman were arrested while trying to smuggle out 10 kg of the forbidden substance through the airport. AAI sources pointed out that since the duo carrying them was fairly educated and the volume of the item was high, it could not have been done without the active connivance of the officials. Moreover, the past experience has also shown that all the ketamine carriers had booked more often than not on the Kuala Lumpur-bound AirAsia flight that incidentally does not accept dead bodies as a matter of policy, no matter the emergency.

Since most of the exports such as vegetables, coconut, drumstick, onion, fabric, garments, leather, pharmaceutical products, tea, foodstuff and household goods are destined for the middle east and the European markets, the SriLankan Airlines is a preferred carrier since it is the only airline that connects to most of the destinations.