As product life cycles have shortened and demand for rapid delivery has increased, the demand for air cargo transportation has increased significantly over the past few years. Airlines, customs, ground services, air cargo forwarders, brokers, domestic transportation, air cargo terminals, distribution centres and integrated international express services are all part of the air cargo industry’s industrial supply chain. Aircargo facilities are particularly important in the air freight supply chain.
With a vision to become the foremost integrated logistics network in India, Airports Authority of India Cargo Logistics and Allied Services Company Limited (AAICLAS) was incorporated in August 2016. AAICLAS is a 100 per cent wholly owned subsidiary of AAI. At present, there are 50-AAI managed airports with dedicated facilities, of which there are 35 cargo terminals and cargo through passenger terminals are available at 15 additional locations. The total built-up area is about 0.16 million square metres with dedicated annual handling capacity of 3.5 million metric tonnes. The company provides specialised cargo as well as logistics services at AAI and public-private partnership airports. In addition, allied services such as in-line hold baggage screening are performed for cargo at AAI airports.
Cargo infrastructure
Currently, AAICLAS caters to international and domestic air cargo operators, express courier cargo terminal 
operators, centre for perishable terminal cargo operators, in-line hold baggage screening systems, regulated agents and cargo hub developers. Going forward, there are plans to set up pack houses for perishables, off airport warehousing and ground handling operations.
The focus is now on moving towards the eastern side and also spreading across the southern parts of the country. New facilities will be made available at the following airports: Agartala, Agra, Bhavnagar, Darbhanga, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Gaya, Gwalior, Hollongi, Imphal, Jharsuguda, Jorhat, Lilabari, Mysuru, Pakyong, Pantnagar, Puducherry, Rajkot, Salem, Shillong, Shimla, Silchar, Tezpur, Tuticorin, Udaipur and Vadodara. Further, there are plans to expand cargo facilities at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bagdogra, Coimbatore, Guwahati, Indore, Kolkata, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Madurai, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Srinagar, Surat, Trivandrum, Tiruchirappalli and Vijayawada airports.
State-of-the-art facilities at cargo terminals include elevated transfer vehicle for exports, automated storage and retrieval systems at Madras International Meenambakkam Airport and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport. There will also be electronic weighing machines, a dangerous goods shed, a centre for perishable cargo facility, freight bays/truck docks/dock levellers, X-ray machines, in-line hold baggage screening facilities, regulated agents, etc. Besides, the cargo terminal will have strongrooms/ cold storages, explosive trace devices, mechanised pallet building stations, cargo handling equipment (forklift/trolleys), CCTVs and web-enabled electronic data interchange-compatible computer systems for online transactions.
Impact of Covid-19
The true strength of cargo in the aviation industry was witnessed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ministry of Civil Aviation launched an initiative called Lifeline UDAN to help India fight against the pandemic. The objective was to ensure the delivery of PPE kits, vaccines, other related items moved across the country as well as to ensure last-mile delivery. To this end, a 24×7 control room was set up. The seats on airlines were permitted to put cargo and move. Cargo was air bridged to other countries as well. The complete intense in-house facility was designed and built. In the first phase (April-May 2020), about 940 metric tonnes of equipment was moved. Further, 130 charters carried 158,000 cartons with 1,890 metric tonnes of cargo. Another challenge was to ensure that the wheels of trade kept moving.
One of the biggest challenges was transporting oxygen cylinders as they needed to be filled first at the nearest stations before being delivered. As part of the Vaccine Maitri initiative, which was aimed to assist countries in their fight against the Coronavirus pandemic, the “Made in India” vaccines reached over 63 countries across the world.
The way forward
Engineering cargo needs to move out from India, thus, there is a need to ensure that cargo moves out of the terminal on time. To this end, discussions were held with road transport authorities, government agencies and police to not hold cargo destined for delivery at different places.
There is a need to ensure that information flows seamlessly between terminal operators and government agencies at the right time. Hence, timeliness is of essence. In times of crises farm produce should be distributed in an organised fashion across the country. Instances of food shortage due to logistic problems were faced by many countries during the pandemic.
Cargo movement is expected to recover by the end of fiscal year 2022-23. In the coming years, incremental capacity is expected to increase by 35-40 per cent. However, this will depend on demand, the Make in India initiative, among others. Unlike passenger traffic, cargo is a one-way movement.
Going forward, there are plans to move towards automation and digitalisation. The plan is to move out of the paper-based system and enable terminals to clear or deliver cargo via mobile by next year. It is expected that such innovative automation and digitalisation solutions will improve speed and efficiency of cargo movement across the globe.
Based on presentation by KekuBomiGazder, Chief Executive Officer, AAI Cargo Logistics and Allied Services
Company at a recent India Infrastructure conference