Bonded trucking service from the Tiruchi Airport commenced in Tiruchi on Friday with the first cargo consignment booked from Chennai to Hanoi being lifted by the Air Asia’s Kuala Lumpur flight from here.
The consignment of 2.2 tonnes of finished leather goods was cleared by Customs at Chennai and sent to Tiruchi in a sealed truck. After verification of papers and scanning of the cargo, it was lifted by the airline to Kuala Lumpur en route to Hanoi.
This is the first consignment of cargo sent by bonded trucking after the opening of the air cargo complex at the airport here in December 2011. With this Tiruchi becomes a gateway for bonded trucking. The service helps exporters to complete the export procedure in the city where the cargo originates after due Customs clearance. For instance, consignments from Karur, Tirupur or even Coimbatore can be sent through bonded trucking after being cleared by the Customs at inland container terminals, airport sources said.
The service would help exporters to send high volume of goods through other airports to be carried by airlines, which do not operate flights to Tiruchi. Similarly, imports can also be made utilising the service.
It would also help exporters to overcome single package weight restrictions on cargo. For Airbus 320 aircrafts, a floor restriction of 120 kg is normally enforced for a single package of cargo although the consignment total weight could be up to three tonnes.
Speaking to The Hindu , S.Dharmaraj, Airport Director, Tiruchi, said “more throughput” could be expected with the introduction of the service and there would be better capacity utilisation of the cargo lifting capacity of the airlines. The space constraints at other airports/airlines could also be overcome by utilising the service.
“While today’s consignment was the first outbound bonded trucking, there is potential for inbound bonded trucking too as the consignments could be sent to other airports from here after Customs clearance,” Mr.Dharmaraj said.
