The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has set cargo targets for eight international airports, including Tiruchi and Chennai for the current fiscal even as the export cargo here has witnessed a steady growth over the years.
The fast-growing non-metro Tiruchi airport has been set a target of 7,081 tonnes for the 2016-17 financial year with the monthly cargo target fixed at 590 tonnes.
The AAI headquarters has asked the airport officials to monitor the freight movements on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to achieve the target.
Airport sources said this was the first time that the AAI headquarters had fixed the cargo target for Tiruchi airport.
The AAI had set separate cargo targets for Lucknow, Guwahati, Coimbatore, Mangaluru, Kolkata, and Amritsar international airports.
The little over 7,000 tonne target set for Tiruchi airport comes at a time when the airport witnessed an impressive 34 per cent growth in freight volume handled in the 2015-16 fiscal as compared to the previous year.
Although the Tiruchi airport authorities internally fixed a target of 6,000 tonnes for 2015-16 fiscal, the airport handled 6,662 tonnes with export cargo accounting for the bulk.
Officials confident
Airport authorities here are confident that the target set for the current fiscal would be achieved given the current robust growth.
Ever since the international air cargo terminal was commissioned in 2011, the export cargo growth had recorded a steady rise because of introduction of more international flights from here.
The steady growth in export cargo had been witnessed despite absence of dedicated cargo freighters and non-operation of wide-bodied aircraft because of runway length restrictions at Tiruchi airport.
At present, cargo is shipped to different overseas destinations only through passenger aircraft in the leftover belly space after accommodating the baggage of passengers.
Kuala Lumpur-bound Air Asia which operates 21 services from Tiruchi tops in respect of lifting export cargo.
This is followed by Colombo-bound Sri Lankan Airlines, Singapore-bound Tiger Airways, and Kuala Lumpur-bound Malindo Air.
Air India Express, which operates flights to Dubai and Singapore from here, carries limited volume of cargo.
The sources said around 18 to 20 tonnes of export cargo was shipped every day through various overseas airlines. Perishables such as vegetables and flowers continue to occupy the bulk of export cargo shipped from here.
Although there was heavy demand for cargo bookings from the shippers, the airport authorities at times are unable to cater to the rising demand because of load restrictions in passenger flights in which priority was given to passengers and their belongings, say the sources.
Amid heavy passenger traffic in all international flights operated from Tiruchi, there have been occasions of cargo offload because of various factors. Airport authorities expect a quantum jump in cargo volume once the international courier operations take off from Tiruchi.
The commencement of courier operations would not only bolster revenue for the airport but also change the existing commodity profile, say the sources.
