International air cargo traffic from Nashik airport has registered a significant growth, rising two-and-a-half times to 4,058 tonnes in the first-half (April-September) of the current financial year.
This figure represents a substantial increase compared to the 1,519 tonnes handled during the same period last year.
During this six-month period, grapes, agricultural products, poultry, defence and industrial goods, were exported via 229 cargo flights. The previous year saw only 91 cargo flights in the corresponding period.
Air cargo operations at the airport are managed by Halcon, a joint venture between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Container Corporation of India (Concor). The airport’s total international cargo for the entire last fiscal year (2024-25) was 4,161 MT across 250 flights.
An official from Halcon, said they reached the last financial year’s international air cargo movement figures in the first-half of the current financial year.
“We have set a target of handling around 7,000 tonnes of goods to various international destinations for the 2025-26 fiscal.
We achieved 57% of the target in six months (April-Sept),” the official said.
“We are making efforts to increase exports to various international destinations as much as possible. Our air cargo handling and other charges are much lower than those at Mumbai airport. Moreover, there is huge potential for the export of various commodities from here,” the official added. For the past two months, the export of pharmaceutical products has also started from Nashik airport.
Manish Rawal, vice-president of Nashik Industries & Manufacturers’ Association (Nima), said it is a positive development that Nashik airport has registered a two-and-a-half fold rise in handling international air cargo goods via air cargo flights.
“There is huge potential for the export of agricultural products, processed foods, poultry, engineering and other various commodities from Nashik. Nashik is also known as the agricultural hub not only in Maharashtra, but in India due to the production of grapes, onions, and other horticultural products on a large scale. There are huge future prospects in terms of air cargo movement from Nashik airport in the coming few years,” Rawal, who is also the chairman of the Aviation Committee of Nima, said.