International courier terminal coming up at Hyderabad airport

‘Cool Container Yard’ for transport of life-saving medications globally also scheduled for opening at RGIA

GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC), a division of GMR Air Cargo and Aerospace Engineering Limited, is stepping up its investments to cater to higher cargo volumes by launching a dedicated International Courier Terminal (ICT) for handling express cargo this year.

A ‘Cool Container Yard’, set to be South Asia’s largest on-airport base for temperature-controlled air cargo containers to facilitate transport of high-value life-saving medications globally, is also scheduled for opening, informed an official spokesperson on Monday.

These two are part of a terminal expansion programme of scaling up the infrastructure, technology, and service offerings with additions to capacity across both domestic and international cargo terminals to meet the expected demand in the future.

The entire export processing zone was recently converted into a temperature-controlled area, becoming the only cargo terminal in the country with such an offering. All these developments are likely to make GHAC the largest air cargo hub for south and central India, said the spokesperson.

“Our cargo terminal has registered a positive growth momentum in a difficult year. With the expected return to normalcy in international air connectivity during 2022, we are very bullish about the future prospects. We will be making major investments into expansion and upgrade of our cargo terminal facilities,” said CEO-GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd. (GHIAL) Pradeep Panicker. 

Domestic cargo growth registered a year-on-year gain of 22% over the volumes handled during 2020 helping the airport move a rank above to fifth place from sixth. Growth in domestic sector was 35%, due to geographic location, improved air network, customers’ preference for air cargo and popularity of e-commerce. This is despite supply chains restrictions and limitations on movement of flights, people, and goods.

GHAC has handled the largest volume of COVID vaccine shipments in the country during the year and also registered strong volume growth in perishables including marine cargo. Domestic connectivity has now expanded to over 65 destinations by the last year end, as opposed to 55 prior to the COVID outbreak in early 2020, added the spokesperson.