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Lured by the fast-growing cargo operations, leading freighter companies have joined the race to enter India in a big way. Existing cargo airlines are also busy augmenting their capacities in view of the 8 per cent growth in international air cargo over the last few years.
The over Rs 7,000-cr {Rs 70 billion (estimated by rating agency CARE)} domestic air cargo market is also a major attraction for them. Integrated air cargo media house Stattimes says India's air freight market is expected to grow by 20 per cent this year.
A study by Drewry and APL Logistics has said that the country's air cargo traffic is expected to register 8-10 per cent annual gains over the next 5 to 10 years. Industry analysts say the boom in retail, textile and pharmaceutical sectors is a major reason for this projected growth.
While international majors such as Great Wall Airlines of China and Cargoitalia of Italy are looking at operating out of metro cities, Gulf Air's freighter company Gulf Air Cargo has already started operations in the country.
Other freighter majors such as Lufthansa, Emirates SkyCargo, Cathay Pacific, and SriLankan Cargo are looking at scaling up capacity in India. Ravi Madhavan, SriLankan Cargo's Indian cargo manager, said, "Currently, the international uplift of air cargo is estimated at over 12,000 tonne per week against last year's average of 10,000 tonne per week."
Domestic airlines are not far behind either. Kingfisher Airlines, GoAir, Jet Airways, Air Deccan, and IndiGo have already announced plans to launch dedicated cargo operations.
Gulf Air Cargo has started a series of scheduled freighter charters with an Airbus A300 aircraft with a 40-tonne capacity that will operate twice a week on the Bahrain-Chennai-Bangalore-Amsterdam route.
"With the exclusive freighter service, Gulf Air will be able to ensure faster transit time to meet the demand originating from the Asian sub-continent and Far East markets for Europe while maintaining our service standards," said Gulf Air vice-president, business units, Ali Murtada.
West Asia has become an important transit gateway for air cargo traffic linking Europe and the Asian sub-continent and Far East export markets. Gulf Air has the strategic advantage of operating out of two hubs -- Bahrain and Muscat -- the region's two dynamically growing markets.
In the domestic space, besides Blue Dart Aviation, First Flight Couriers has forayed into the air cargo space with flights to Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai.
R K Saboo, deputy managing director of First Flight said, "We are planning to start services to Hyderabad and Bangalore shortly. We are in talks with Boeing company to acquire more aircraft. At present, we have three 8-tonne capacity ATPF aircraft."