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The Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) held its annual event with the theme “10 million: Vision 2030,” charting the ambitious growth plan of the government’s vision to reach 10 million tonnes of air cargo by 2030. Cyrus Katgara, president of ACFI and a partner at Jeena & Company, welcomed Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Minister of Civil Aviation, as the Chief Guest, and Piyush Srivastava, Sr. Economic Advisor, Ministry of Civil Aviation, as the Guest of Honor, to discuss major factors that could push India’s GDP to a higher growth trajectory.
Katgara stated that India has become the world’s fastest-growing major economy, and that the government has set a bold goal for India to become a $5 trillion economy and the world’s fourth largest by 2024-25.
“The growth potential for air cargo in India is tremendous,” Scindia said. We are currently approaching 3.1 million metric tonnes and have set an ambitious goal of 10 million metric tonnes by 2030. We’ll create a hub-and-spoke system and build transhipment hubs all over India. We are targeting 53 cargo terminals connecting airports with agriculture farmlands for the transportation of perishable commodities in order to boost the agri sector. Green shoots from Assam or Tripura jackfruits can now be shipped to London and Germany instead of being consumed locally in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, and other cities. We are confident that India will become a global player in air cargo in the coming years.”
The government has set a goal for the Indian air cargo industry to reach 10 million mt of annual volume by 2030-31. In the next four years, the Airport Authority of India will spend Rs 98,000 crore on airports, with private companies spending Rs 62,000 crore and the Airport Authority of India spending Rs 30,000 crore. There will be seven brownfield and three greenfield sites, as well as new airports in Navi Mumbai, Goa, and other locations. There are currently 21 international cargo terminals and 33 domestic cargo terminals. By 2024-25, there will be an additional 33 domestic terminals.
“On behalf of ACFI, we will work with the government through the Ministry of Civil Aviation to promote airfreight as the preferred mode of transportation, contributing directly to India’s GDP growth and achieving the 10-million-tonne vision by 2030,” Katgara said.
