{"id":103261,"date":"2026-02-26T09:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/895767755"},"modified":"2026-02-26T09:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T12:47:23","slug":"aci-delegates-upbeat-on-india-air-cargo-surge-despite-trade-jitters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/26\/aci-delegates-upbeat-on-india-air-cargo-surge-despite-trade-jitters\/","title":{"rendered":"ACI delegates upbeat on India air cargo surge, despite trade jitters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Angelo Mathais at Air Cargo India, Mumbai<\/a><\/address>\n

Industry participants at the three-day Air Cargo India (ACI) event, which opened this week in Mumbai, struck an optimistic tone on the market outlook, even as they voiced concerns about lingering geopolitical trade risks.<\/p>\n

Much of the confidence expressed by delegates and panelists centred on surging air freight demand from India\u2019s ecommerce and pharmaceutical sectors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are especially seeing a boom in ecommerce logistics,\u201d Richard Theknath, CMD of Mumbai-based forwarder Jet Freight Logistics (JFL), told The Loadstar<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Participants lauded ongoing cargo infrastructure upgrades at Indian airports, though many noted that further improvements, particularly in the cold chain, would be needed to keep pace with expanding perishables exports\/imports.<\/p>\n

Kaushal Khakhar, CEO of Kay Bee Exports and a session panelist, said an integrated shipping documentation system covering both ocean and air freight could be a game-changer for the industry. Mumbai-based Kay Bee is a leading exporter of fresh fruit.<\/p>\n

Cargo airlines attending ACI likewise signalled strong confidence in the Indian market.<\/p>\n

Executives at Air India said the carrier remained committed to strengthening its market share, supported by additional belly-hold capacity from new widebody long-haul aircraft entering service. Sources also hinted at a freighter deployment plan in the works for the Tata Group-owned carrier.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will most likely involve a passenger-to-freighter conversion order,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Emirates SkyCargo is another carrier looking to capture a larger slice of the Indian air freight market by boosting dedicated freighter capacity. From early March, the Middle East-based carrier will increase its weekly freighter services from three to five, including two serving Mumbai and three connecting Ahmedabad.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur new freighter frequencies to India reflect both the strength of the country\u2019s trade corridors and our long-term commitment to supporting them,\u201d said Badr Abbas, divisional SVP of Emirates SkyCargo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndia is a powerhouse in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, perishables and ecommerce, and demand for reliable, stable capacity continues to grow. These additional freighters enhance our existing operations by providing greater connectivity and capacity to better serve our customers in India and worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, the doubling of freighter capacity at Mumbai comes as airport operator Adani has announced a revised 10-month freighter slot suspension plan starting in August.<\/p>\n

Delegates from the forwarding community also noted potential cargo opportunities arising from a potential surge in volumes following the US tariff realignments.<\/p>\n

India aims to handle 10m tonnes of air cargo annually by 2030 \u2013 nearly triple the current 3.5m tonnes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs margins tighten in general freight markets, the focus is increasingly shifting toward pharmaceuticals, perishables, aerospace components, healthcare products and premium automotive parts \u2013 sectors where precision, compliance and reliability matter more than sheer volume,\u201d ACI noted in an official statement.<\/p>\n

Cargo community system provider Kale Logistics Solutions also drew attention at the event with new ecommerce supply chain innovations, including the launch of a cross-border module, \u201cAvSys\u201d, designed to support airlines, e-tailers, shippers and consignees.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rise of ecommerce has created demand for modern, piece-level parcel logistics that traditional airline air waybill-based systems alone cannot support,\u201d said Amar More, Kale\u2019s CEO and co-founder.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith AvSys, airlines, ground handlers, e-tailers and shippers and consignees can now achieve piece- or parcel-level visibility while remaining fully compliant in both domestic and cross-border environments.\u201d<\/p>\n

The product rollout followed Kale\u2019s recent acquisition of AVLOG Systems, a specialist technology provider focused on express and ecommerce logistics.<\/p>\n

\n

Chceck out this clip on the challenge and solution to cross-border trade in Africa: Mohammed Akoojee, CEO of Sub-Saharan Africa DP World<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… Jet Freight<\/span> Logistics (JFL), told The Loadstar. Participants lauded ongoing cargo<\/span> … an integrated shipping<\/span> documentation system covering both ocean and air freight<\/span> could … forwarding community also noted potential cargo<\/span> opportunities arising from a potential …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}