Air India on Thursday used the city airport’s transshipment facility for the first time to move an international consignment to Kuwait via Mumbai, almost six years after its launch.
“A total of 650kg of live plants was moved by the airline from Pune to Mumbai. Thereafter, they were moved on another Air India flight from Mumbai to Kuwait. Individual airlines get permission to use transshipment from the AAI (Airports Authority of India) and customs.
In 2021, another airline was given permission for a stipulated period of time but it couldn’t move any cargo because of Covid,” Tushar Sutar, the joint secretary of Exim Integrated Club, said.
Using this facility, airlines can move cargo from different cities to big airports having multiple international connections.
“We hope that other airlines will apply for the transshipment permission and use the facility to export international cargo from Pune. This will give a big fillip to traders of the state. We are in talks with some big logistics companies to facilitate the process,” a senior airport official said.
Former airport director Ajay Kumar had announced in 2018 that the Pune airport now had the transshipment facility. Sources said the cargo hold area was too small then and it was difficult to export international cargo. In February, just 5 metric tonnes of international cargo was exported from Pune. From January 2023 to January 2024, international cargo exports remained nil.
“The integrated cargo terminal was ready last year but operations were delayed for the BCAS approval. International cargo exports have resumed from January this year and we are positive that it will gather pace. Earlier this month, DHL was involved in the movement of a consignment to Singapore. Now, with airlines beginning to take advantage of transshipment, we expect the exports to grow,” the airport official said.