The AFCI annual conclave 2024 was held at the resplendent chandeliered hall of Taj Palace, New Delhi, on 4th July. It was a diverse conglomeration of people from the Air cargo industry. The theme for this year’s conclave was, Unlocking Potential, Paving Way for Developed India. The agenda, meticulously curated, covered a gamut of topics, such as the potential of air cargo in India, skilling requirements, action required from the Governments and other issues. India was striving to become a global manufacturing powerhouse and a developed nation by 2047. Was India ready?
The keynote address was by Kapil Kaul, CEO and Director, CAPA India. He spoke on the key trends and key strategic issues. He felt that the airport infrastructure was ahead of demand. He felt that the cargo industry would be the biggest beneficiary, when the NOIDA airport came into operation.
The guest of Honour was Dr. Surendra Ahirwar, Joint Secretary (Logistics and Trade), DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Ahiwar said that under the PM GatiShakti Master Plan, the Government was focussed on bringing in all the Government organs and the states together. It was also involved in the rationalisation of processes, skilling in the sector and looking at the integrated development of the sector. All the States had come on board, 48 ministries too were under the umbrella of PM GatiShakti Master Plan. He emphasised that logistics was the prominent issue both at Central and State levels. He further added that all the States had either adopted the logistics policy or were in the process of structuring it into their system. All the sectoral digital platforms were going to be integrated. In future there was going to be a Logistics e-market as well, which will have aviation, shipping, road, rail and any other logistics services in one place, so that the buyer of these services will have a visibility of the services available at a competitive price. This would contribute toward lowering the logistics costs.
The presidential address was given by Yashpal Sharma, President Air Cargo Forum India. He was sanguine about the growth in India’s logistics sector. ACFI, he said, was constantly involved in innovation. He felt that the 10 million MT growth of cargo was achievable. In the 7 years the air freight operations had grown considerably. Skilling was going to be one of the most critical aspects in growth. Skilling was not just for the new entrants but also it was necessary for upscaling the current workers. The need of tomorrow was going to be different from the needs of yesterday. This was necessary to achieve the growth envisaged by the Government.
Piyush Srivastava, Senior Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation said that he appreciated ACFI’s effort in bringing together various stakeholders, under one forum. It made the Government’s effort that much easier. He was confident that e-commerce and express delivery of cargo had a great future and was likely to see an exponential growth. He said that the VAT on ATF (ATF is a specialised type of fuel used by aircraft) has been reduced. Thirty-one states and union territories have already reduced VAT and the five remaining ones were also likely to do so. The aviation industry was bound to have a higher level of security, which he conceded that at times impeded their work. But he was looking forward to working with the private industries to ease their work and to be in tune with international best practices. He however cautioned that these practices would have to be in line with their needs and requirements. Another important aspect to be kept in mind was sustainability. The aim was to achieve zero carbon emission. He said that they owed to the future generations to achieve this mission.
The topic for the Fireside chat was Airline-Airport Coordination: Key Ingredient for Economic Growth. The participants were Peter Penseel, President, Delta Air Lines and Manoj Singh, Chief Cargo Officer, Adani Airport Holdings Ltd. Penseel believed the airport should be ready when wide bodied aircrafts start coming to India. Was there the necessary infrastructure? Also was ACFI ready to handle the volume of cargo for the next 10 years?
Singh said that his company touched around 1.1 million tons of cargo, though they had a capacity of 2.3 million tons of cargo within the seven airports, they were planning to build more. The capacity utilisation of international cargo was around 75%, whereas in the domestic sector was about 45 to 50%.
The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Dr. Mohan Yadav, made a surprise entry to the AFCI convocation. By way of introduction, Yashpal Sharma emphasised to the Chief Minister, the importance of Madhya Pradesh (MP) for the logistics sector. Dr Yadav stated that Madhya Pradesh was connected to many ICDs, ports and airports. Being in the centre of the country, the state held a great potential to be a cargo hub. He said that he was looking forward for Madhya Pradesh to be a cargo centre like Delhi. The work has already begun. Air connectivity has been enhanced. They were trying to bring different trades to Madhya Pradesh.
They had started a project called Future Ready Madhya Pradesh. The current rate of progress is 30% and the agriculture growth rate was about 25% of the budget. He proudly added that the budget that was released recently was 16% more than all the previous budgets. In the current budget there was a lot of scope of air connectivity. He further added that MP was the only state that had an air ambulance service. This facility was for the economically weaker sections. Since their state was very large, they had started Helicopter services. Thanks to Prime Minister Modi, the other transport network was growing. Expressways were also being constructed. In the coming times with the development of Special Economic Zones, they were confident that the Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor, which has a long stretch in Madhya Pradesh, could be used to go north, south, east and west. For trade they had created a single window clearance. Delhi and the surrounding areas were already crowded. He invited all the stakeholders to become partners in their progress.
In the business session, titled Soaring Ambitions: Building India’s Air Cargo Capacity, Paving Way for a Developed India. The moderator Sanjiv Edward, CEO – Cargo and Logistics, GMR, posed the question what the shipper wanted from the air cargo industry? Camilo Garcia Cervera, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, IAG Cargo, said the shippers wanted to deal with partners that add value to their products. They want different carriers working together and not in silos and an industry driven by technology.
Vishal Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Global Cargo Operations, Delta Airlines said that shippers looked for reliability and safety of their cargo. Also, they needed clarity on actions when things go wrong. This could be achieved only through cooperation of all the stakeholders. Cap Nikhil Ved, Managing Director, Blue Dart Aviation Ltd, agreed with Bhatnagar Cervera. Vaibhav Vohra, Managing Director, Continental Carriers Pvt Ltd, said shippers did not want to worry about freight. He had a whole host of matters to worry about. Manoj Singh, Chief Cargo Officer, Adani Airport Holdings Ltd, said that a shipper expects to receive better services every time. A service provider had to think beyond what the shipper would expect from the carriers.
The second business session dwelt on Collaborative Horizons: Unlocking Customer Expectations. The third business session dealt on Future Skies: Transforming Air Cargo Through Technology, Innovation and Sustainability.
