Curbs on foreign cargo airlines helped Indian carriers: Scindia

Dismisses impact on exports, says Indian airlines carry only 19% of cargo

The government’s decision to bar foreign, non-scheduled all-cargo airlines from landing at non-metro airports helped Indian airlines at a time when they were incurring losses due to COVID-19 by increasing their share of international cargo traffic as well as revenue from cargo, Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia told Parliament on Monday.

“Our carriers... were almost entering a period of insolvency; this has given a glimmer of hope for our carriers within India,” Mr. Scindia told Rajya Sabha about the DGCA’s decision in September, 2020, that said foreign ad-hoc and non-scheduled freighter flights could only operate to airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, thereby barring them from landing at non-metro airports in India. Cargo carried in the belly of passenger aircraft as well as on all-cargo scheduled flights under the bilateral agreement were not affected by the order.  

The Minister said the decision had allowed number of freighters in India to increase from eight in 2018 to 28 in 2021 — an increase of 3.5 times.

“Therefore, by Atmanirbhar Bharat, Indian carriers are beginning to stand on their own feet,” Mr Scindia said.

Apart from dedicated freighters or cargo planes, the capacity of passenger planes to carry cargo in the aircraft belly also climbed as airlines modified 150 planes for this purpose during the pandemic, when most of their fleet was grounded due to ban on flights. The Minister also said that between May 2019 and May 2021, India’s share in international cargo traffic movement went up from 1.8% to 19% and revenue from cargo rose from ₹1,498 crore to ₹2,300 crore — a 50% increase.

The Minister was responding to a question from CPM MP John Brittas who said the policy had “crippled States” and raised the cost and affected exports, trade bodies, farmers and the local population. He cited the example of Cochin airport to say that since the 2020 order, the airport has seen only two cargo operators ferry goods.

Mr. Scindia said that cargo carried by airlines was skewed in favour of international carriers and that as far as dedicated freighters were concerned, Indian carriers only accounted for 1% of cargo, while 99% was carried by foreign carriers. When it came to total cargo carrying capacity, through dedicated freighters and cargo carried in the belly of passenger planes, Indian airlines carried only 19% of cargo and foreign carriers transported 81% cargo.