Despite certain unforeseen developments hitting freight movements, the volume of export cargo handled at the Tiruchi international airport has managed to surpass the previous year mark.
With few more days to go for the end of the current fiscal, international cargo handled at the Tiruchi airport has already clocked a little over 4,800 metric tonnes – a slight increase over the previous year figure of 4,773 tonnes.
Officials say stability had been maintained with respect to international cargo growth this fiscal notwithstanding certain developments.
Tiruchi continues to remain way ahead of other international airports such as Goa, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Mangalore, Coimbatore and Amritsar in terms of overseas freight movements.
Suspension of export cargo to Male in December due to acute water crisis in the island nation and suspension of cargo uplift to Singapore by the Tiger Airways for a period of three weeks in February gave some testing time to the stakeholders impacting cargo movements.
Intermittent instances of cargo offloading due to space constraints in the available belly space in passenger flights also gave some anxious moments to exporters and other stakeholders.
Despite all these developments, some stability was maintained resulting in the marginal growth this fiscal, say officials.
Singapore has been a major destination for export cargo from Tiruchi followed by some countries in West Asia.
Even though the volume of exports has recorded a steady rise over the years, the profile of Tiruchi air cargo terminal with respect to type of freight handled remains largely unchanged.
Perishable commodities
Perishable commodities continue to account for 90 per cent of export cargo with general cargo being a meagre 10 per cent or even less than that.
Despite its proximity to textile belt districts such as Karur, Erode and Tiruppur, export of textiles through air is yet to take off in a major way from Tiruchi with exporters preferring the sea route to various overseas destinations due to low cost and bulk movement.
Lack of capacity addition, dependency on available belly space in the existing overseas flights and space constraints are factors coming in the way of further buoyancy in exports.
Stakeholders strongly feel that introduction of new passenger flights to different destinations in West Asia or any other destinations, given its heavy demand, would create additional capacity for cargo movement.
This would eventually give a big push to freight exports changing the character of the Tiruchi region, say the stakeholders.
