Coimbatore: The Coimbatore International Airport has been listed in the Top 10 airports in India for Air Cargo Handling. This has been calculated in terms of air cargo tonnage handled in the financial year 2019-2020.
Coimbatore: The Coimbatore International Airport has been listed in the Top 10 airports in India for Air Cargo Handling. This has been calculated in terms of air cargo tonnage handled in the financial year 2019-2020.
This information was shared in the Airport Authority of India (AAI) Cargo and logistics and Allied Services (AAICLAS) official twitter handle.
Chennai tops the list in the first place followed by Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kozhikode, Trivandrum, Jaipur, Guwahati, Lucknow and Coimbatore.
Sources said, "Each year, on an average, the Coimbatore International Airport handles 3,500 tonnes of cargo in the International sector and 10,000 tonnes of cargo in the domestic sector. The above includes bonded truck operation also." AAICLAS has now listed Coimbatore in the Top 10 list across India.
Notably, the Coimbatore Airport cargo complex is handled by the Airport Authority of India, on its own. All export, import, bonded truck operations are carried out by the AAI. Other airports such as Calicut airport, though owned by the AAI, the operation and management is carried out by the Kerala State Industrial Enterprise. In Ahmedabad there are three operators namely Blue dart, Gujarat State Industrial Enterprise and Cargo service centre. Hence if the present list is filtered with more constraints Coimbatore will be among the top 5",sources said.
Lack of communication and coordination a big drawback for the growth of cargo exports.
The Coimbatore International Airport has a huge potential as more volume of cargo can be handled than the one that is being handled now. Though there are only three international flight services, with the help of bonded truck operations, cargos booked at Coimbatore are sent by road to Chennai, Bengaluru and Kochi airports and from there airlifted to several foreign countries.
Recently FlyDubai made an announcement for cargo service four times and cancelled all of them at the last minute mentioning 'Due to Commercial reasons'. There is some gap and lack of coordination witnessed and this is the reason why in spite of having potential, more cargo cannot not be handled.
The Tamilnadu government should take steps in conducting a meeting with the AAI officials, cargo booking agents, farmers, traders, industrialists and various airline officials. If this meeting is conducted then there will be a big turn around in the volume of cargo handled at the Coimbatore International Airport.