Chennai airport’s cargo terminal to get new facilities to handle Apple products

Chennai airport's cargo terminal upgrades facilities to exclusively handle Apple products, expecting significant increase in cargo traffic.

From a dedicated corridor to massive expansion of the parking space, Chennai airport’s cargo terminal is planning a host of new facilities for exclusively handling Apple products.

According to a source, iPhone products manufactured at the Sriperumbudur facility will be brought to the airport for export. The first exclusive freighter is scheduled to start in January. The cargo terminal infrastructure is being upgraded. This is crucial and it is directly monitored by authorities from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the source said.

A separate corridor is being created to ensure the free movement of trucks transporting Apple products. “At present, Apple is making about 10%-14% of their products here. This is likely to go up to 25% in the future. Since we handle nearly two thirds of the manufacturing of iPhones here, the upgrade to the infrastructure could be useful,” another source said.

Four dedicated X-ray scanning machines and six built-up locations for facilitating the movement of Apple products are being set up.

Further, the access road for the cargo terminal is being widened from both ends — Guindy and Chromepet. Towards the Guindy side, the road is being widened by seven metres and on the Chromepet side, it will be expanded by five metres.

A post office and the premises of the Central Industrial Security Force will be relocated to alternative locations. The road widening will also help ease congestion and facilitate the movement of other cargo-carrying vehicles.

The existing parking space is scaled up from 20,471 sq.m to 27,971 sq.m to allow parking for an additional 200 vehicles, another source said.