What are the Advantages of Using Air Cargo Services in India?

Air Cargo or air freight is the most expensive form of transport involving the transportation of cargo by air. It is the fastest way to transport cargo. It is often used for high-value and low-volume shipments. Air cargo is shipped through the same gateway as a passenger or commercial airline.

Air Cargo Safexpress

The demand for air cargo services in India  has increased significantly over the last few years, due to globalization, just-in-time manufacturing, inventory control methods, and the growing requirement of industries of all types for rapid delivery.

Types of Air Cargo

Air cargo can be classified as general and special cargo.

General cargo

This type of cargo mainly includes premium goods that are fragile  n nature such as electronics, jewellery, and pharmaceuticals. Air cargo is more expensive than shipping by sea or road, but due to the high margins that comes with the sale of these products air cargo is the most apt form of transport.

Special cargo

This type of cargo requires special temperature-controlled conditions and needs to be handled with care for transporting fall into this category.

Some of the cargo types that fall under the special cargo category are:

Temperature Controlled: Cargo that requires being stored under a certain temperature due to the special nature of the cargo like fruits, vegetables, medicines.

Hazardous Cargo: Cargoes that are flammable, poisonous, radioactive, explosive are some of the types of cargoes that come under this category. This cargo should be packed properly and loaded in a certain space allocated in the airplane to avoid accidents.

Livestock: This type of cargo involves shipping of live animals requiring a properly ventilated area and should be placed in suitable carriers that allow their comfortable stay during the flight.

Human Remains, Tissues, and Organs: Transportation of this type of cargo involves special handling, packaging, and temperature control.

Advantages of Air Cargo

Saves Time

Transporting with air freight saves time as it is much faster than shipping, rail, or road transport.

Safexpress is a leading logistics company that provides an efficient and reliable air freight service through its SafeAir network. This air service combined with surface logistics offers optimal multi model solutions and faster deliveries.

 Safexpress has a door-to-door pickup and delivery service that is backed by 54 state-of-the-art air hubs managed by a dedicated team of specialized air freight experts 24x7. Easy handling of various documentation formalities required for different product categories ensures prioritized and cost-effective movement of cargo.

 
Reliable service


Air cargo has reliable arrival and departure times with very few delays, and even missing a flight would not cause much delay as there are usually flights departing every hour.

 
Low insurance premium

 
As the time travel time of the cargo is very short, insurance premiums on air freight are generally lower.

 High level of security
 

The airport safety controls over cargo are tightly managed and also reduces the chance of cargo being stolen or damaged.

 Less warehousing requirements

The clearance time for air freight is fast thus avoiding the need for local warehousing. Customs clearance, cargo inspection, and cargo handlers are more efficient, and the cargo is cleared within a matter of hours.
 

Less packaging is required

Air shipments require less heavy packing when compared to other modes of cargo transportation. This allows you to save both time and money in providing additional packing.

Real-time updates of cargo

Not just one air cargo company in India, but many of them provide services through which you can keep track of your cargo, keeping you updated on the status of your cargo from departure to arrival.

Where is Air Cargo Operations Headed to?

A Working Group Report by Ministry of Civil Aviation, published in 2012, says, “Evidence between 2007 and 2010 Logistics Performance Index (LPI) indicates that countries at the same level of Per Capita Income, those with the best logistics performance experience an additional growth of 1% in GDP and 2% in trade.” Similarly, according to International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the output and employment multiplier of the aviation sector are 3.25 and 6.1 respectively.

This means every Rs. 100 spent in the sector results in an addition of Rs. 325 in GDP and every 100 direct jobs created in the sector results in 610 jobs created in the larger economy. This GDP-air cargo relation is amply justified by the data available for the period between 1995 & 2010.

Unfortunately, no such study report is available for the period afterwards. The annual performance report put up by the Ministry of Civil Aviation clearly shows an overall stagnation between FY11-12 & 15-16 with growth thereafter only marginal. The immediate reason for this lull can be attributed to the global financial crisis that affected the incoming cargo with domestic cargo businesses of pharma & ecommerce sector rescued it from the tumble.

In fact, health of India’s air cargo sector can be gauged from the fact that while the country’s total trade has risen by 22.4% between FY11-12 & 15-16; its total air cargo traffic has actually fallen by 3%. And if seen in terms of GDP which has been contracting quarter after quarter, the slump in the tonnage as well as the number of people directly and indirectly employed could be well understood. 

The Government of India adopted Air Cargo Open Sky Policy in 1992 which allowed all domestic and foreign carriers that met operational and safety requirements to operate to scheduled and non-scheduled cargo services to & from any airport in India that had custom facilities. In addition, a regulatory regime for cargo rate was abolished and carriers were allowed to fix their tariff. 

The opening up of the sector saw a spike in international cargo traffic, primarily due to a rise in scheduled services by foreign airlines as carriers like Lufthansa, Air France and KLM doubled their capacity in the country. The effect was cascading as a host of domestic players entered into the business. Despite existing infrastructure bottlenecks, there was an impressive growth that promised a rosier picture. An industry that is positively correlated with GDP growth and employment generation has gone into stagnation for most of the last decade should be worrisome. But what exactly has caused this slowdown?

The Working Group’s study paper cited above pointed out thus, “A peculiar aspect of India’s trade is that despite the country’s massive deficits in value terms, when it comes to volumes, outbound traffic is, at times, much higher than that of inbound traffic! And this shows in the composition of the country’s air cargo traffic as well.

For example, the mentioned Working Group Report reveals that in FY2011, while the volume of inbound air cargo traffic was 6.6 lakh MT, the same for outbound traffic was 8.4 lakh MT. Such imbalances mess up an airlines’ ability to provide competitive quotes because many-a-time, their aircrafts are forced to fly empty. And while this has been a perennial issue with India’s air cargo sector, factors like volatile ATF prices and high taxes at airports, lack of warehouses and cold storage facility, cargo terminals, etc. have also played a significant role in ruining the prospects of India’s air cargo sector.”

Air cargo operation comes associated with time-centricity and urgency. Players who operate in delivery operations often perform far better than passenger-centric commercial airlines. Globally, DHL, UPS, Fedex & others fly their own cargo planes and also some dedicated premium routes in India. Domestic players though operate in multi-model belittling the feel of urgency or glamour.

The Expert Group nonetheless made an impressive forecast for air cargo believing that with businesses finding Just In Time model compelling & highly rewarding one coupled with forecasted exponential growth in online retail would the driving force. Meanwhile, the forecast was made in 2010-11!