The first freighter aircraft carrying 22 tons of goods that arrived at Manohar International Airport in north Goa has shown GMR Goa Air Cargo Logistic (GGACL) Terminal’s capability to handle substantial freight operations, an official said on Thursday.
The A321 freighter aircraft service organised by Chapman Freeborn Air charters with BBN Airlines Turkey arrived in the early hours of Wednesday, the MIA spokesperson said.
“This is the first commercial freighter operation at GOX (MIA) and in Goa using an MDL/LDL (main deck loader/lower deck loader) to offload cargo. The airport management organised the offload, storage and clearance with GMR’s state of the art cargo facilities. The first freighter landing at MIA marks a significant milestone,” he said.
“This set a benchmark for airlift opportunities of heavy and odd dimensional freighter cargo. This will pave way for carriers awaiting to operate at GOX and use it as the preferred cargo hub of western India,” he added.
MIA commenced air cargo operations on September 8 and has handled approximately 5,000 MT of domestic/international air cargo through Air India, Oman Air, IndiGo, Akasa, Vistara and SpiceJet.
“The integrated GMR Goa Air Cargo Logistic Terminal has been built with a capacity to handle 25,000 MT of cargo per annum in Phase I. This can go up to 2 lakh MT per annum. GGACL with its full-fledged cargo infrastructure and skilled manpower has created a new cargo destination airport at GOX providing quick turnaround of the freighters,” the spokesman added.