The Adani group-run Guwahati airport has seen a 35 per cent year-on -year growth in domestic cargo and is planning to build an integrated terminal to support e-commerce and export of local products from North-East region.
Growth in cargo movement was led by Blue Dart which began its scheduled freighter operations on January 29 last year. At present, Blue Dart is only cargo airline operating to Guwahati and it flies Boeing 737 freighter five times a week offering 21 tonnes capacity each way. Additionally the airline also operates charter flights to Guwahati on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India using its Boeing 757 plane.
Guwahati airport handled 19,914.5 tonnes of domestic freight between April and December 2024. While cargo flows are bi-directional, inbound accounts for 60-75 per cent of total freight movement. at Guwahati. Blue Dart is seeing a pick-up in freight with an improvement in service delivery in North-East region. While loads on outbound flights are still low, freight carriage into Guwahati has grown, it is learnt. This includes e-commerce, mail and parcels.
“The new trend is of the movement of perishable goods such as avocados,” a Guwahati International Airport spokesperson said. There is no significant increase in outbound air cargo as Guwahati is essentially a consumer market, he said.
Attracting investment
Plans are being drawn up to build an integrated cargo terminal. This comes amid Assam government’s push to attract investment and grow gross State domestic product. “The new integrated cargo terminal is in conceptualisation stage. The proposed ICT facility will house both domestic inbound and outbound, international import and export operations and will efficiently support regional distributions, besides facilitating the process of special cargo such as perishable and pharma,” the airport spokesperson said.
The ICT will play an important role in augmenting the capacity of the airport and providing conducive infrastructure for efficient cargo movement from the region, he added.
