Airport Cargo needs facelift
Insufficient flights and restricted cargo uplift
capacity of existing ones is impeding exporters from fully exploiting
the demand for vegetables, fruits and other perishables among south
Indian expatriates living in West Asia .
With the
anticipated introduction of new services to the Middle East from the
city failing to materialise, exporters are slowly switching to other
destinations such as Kochi and Bengaluru to despatch their consignments.
Although cargo exports from the airport had registered 44 per cent
growth during 2012-13, exporters say that there is much more scope for
growth. Currently about 400 tonnes of cargo, a major portion of them
perishables, are exported through the airport.
About
six tonnes of perishables is being exported to Kuwait and Doha via
Colombo a day normally, but this depends on the passenger load of the
aircrafts.
The higher is the passenger load, the lesser the space made available for cargo.
According
to sources, the quantum of export of perishables to Kuwait and Doha has
come down substantially over the past 15 days owing to space
restrictions.
According to airport sources, Sri
Lankan Airways that lifts consignments to West Asian destinations
through its two flights to Colombo from the city has been able to spare
just about three to three-and-a-half tonnes in recent days owing to
heavy passenger load.
Air Asia and Tiger Airways
lift substantial loads but the consignments are headed to Kuala Lumpur
and Singapore respectively. Strangely, Air India Express, which operates
services to Dubai from here, does not lift cargo.
With the Onam festival round the corner, exporters say that they are unable to meet the demand.
“We had to send a special consignment booked ahead of Onam through
Bengaluru. We cannot blame the existing airlines as they have to share
the available space among exporters. But for us, splitting the
consignments mean more costs and importers too do not like it. We need
more services or at least wide-bodied aircrafts to lift more cargo from
Tiruchi if we are to meet the demand,” said Ratnakumar of AJ Exporters.
“Given
the capacity constraints, we could not meet the entire demand. If more
airlines introduce services to the city, we can export more. There is
even demand for European countries,” says a representative of a clearing
and forwarding agency.
Exporters say that there is potential to export up to eight tonnes of perishables to West Asian countries every day.
There is also scope for exporting general cargo. But this would require more services or possibly a freighter service.
A
few foreign carriers, a couple of them based in West Asia who had
conducted surveys for introducing services from the city, are yet to
firm up their plans. Possibly, the delay in expanding the runway held up
due to land acquisition could be the possible reason. Expansion of the
runway is essential for operating wide-bodied aircrafts, they say.
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