Emirates plans shift to e-freight system

Emirates has operationalised the e-freight paperless customs processing at Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai airports, and has put in place the necessary infrastructure for a planned shift soon to e-freight at all the 10 airports in India that it operates from. This follows the International Air Transport Association (IATA) guideline to move to a paperless customs processing by 2014. With e-freight, the industry is expected to net a saving of $4.9 billion.

Ram C Menen, divisional senior vice president, Emirates Airline, told the media here on Thursday that technology was not a constraint and that it was hoping to implement the Indian Customs EDI System (ICES) 1.5, the application software for the e-freight system, this year.

Menen said air cargo generally grows at twice the pace of GDP growth, and with globalisation, business was building up in all segments.

Emirates’ market share in India is 15 per cent (outbound) and 12 per cent (inbound), and was the top airline in 2009-10. He said 2008-09 was a tough year for the sector and air cargo was the worst-hit within the transport sector. But last year, till March 2010, Emirates globally registered a 12 percent growth rate in cargo volumes.