Air Cargo India Giving Wings To Global Air Cargo Industry

The biggest congregation of global air cargo industry stakeholders, at the seventh edition of Air Cargo India, was testimony of the fact that India-a country that is poised for substantial air cargo growth in 2018, is being looked at as a land of opportunity.

- Nahida Jafferi

Vandana Aggarwal, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India, urged the delegates at Air Cargo India 2018, to tell what it needs from the government, and announced that it has earmarked INR 88,000 crore for capital projects at airport covering air cargo facilities over the next five years.

The conference cum exhibition kick started on a positive note as Aggarwal in her keynote inaugural address impressed upon that the government shall bring down logistics costs to 9 percent of GDP by 2022, from the current 13- 14 percent. “The ministry is also working towards improving India’s ranking in World Bank’s Logistics Performance Index (LPI) from 35 to 15 by 2020. This year, we shall be introducing a Domestic Logistics Performance Index to rank the Indian states as per competition,” informed Aggarwal.

The three-day event witnessed the innovative spirit of the industry with the launch of new initiatives and key partnerships, while the stakeholders discussed ways for making the air cargo business efficient. The event gathered close to 500 delegates, 79 exhibitors and about 2500 trade visitors.

The International Air Shippers Association (IASA) was launched on the first day that was also marked by many new deal announcements at the event. Des Vertannes, Director General of IASA, and former chief of cargo, IATA, said, “The objective is to give the air cargo shippers a platform where their voices can be heard because they are the ones behind the industry moving $6.4 trillion worth of goods around the world.”

At the Pharma Air Shipper’ Forum, Penta Freight and Amerijet International officially signed their new full memberships with Pharma. Aero, a cross-industry collaboration of Pharma Shippers, CEIV certified cargo communities, airport operators and other air cargo industry stakeholders.