Rise in airport fee, ATF may hit cargo tonnage growth

For cargo carrier Blue Dart, for instance, land lease rentals, the amount paid for facilities such as warehouses and dockets, have increased from anywhere between 7.5 per cent to as much as 450 per cent during the last one year. Blue Dart operates to seven airports - New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad.

These places account for about 90 per cent of the cargo carried in India.Besides, limited infrastructure for cargo at various airports is the main problem for airlines.

A Blue Dart executive said that while in its tonnage carried has increased by almost five times in the last 10 years, the space allocated to them at several airports like Delhi have remained the same due to limited infrastructure at the airports.

Indian airports fall far behind in terms of cargo facilities. While the Frankfurt Airport in Germany handles, 5,200 metric tonnes of cargo a day, much more than an Indian airport handles in one month.

"Cargo is a neglected sector because there are very few dedicated domestic cargo carriers in India. Almost 80 per cent of cargo carried in India is carried in the belly-hold space of passenger aircraft," said an industry expert.

An Air India Cargo executive said, "We have less problem of space since our capacity (freighter as well as passenger) is increasing at a greater than our tonnage. While most of our freighter aircraft are chartered, majority of the cargo carried by us is still transported in the belly-hold space of our passenger aircraft."

Air India's cargo operations still accounts for merely 7-8 per cent of its total revenue.

Also, like passenger carriers, freighter airlines are also severely affected by rising jet fuel prices. For Air India cargo, ATF costs as a percentage of total costs has gone up from 25 to 50 per cent during the last seven to eight months.

According to company sources, the carrier has recently introduced a fuel surcharge of Rs 5,000/tonne or its domestic operations.

Air freighter charges for Blue Dart have also shot up by around 20 per cent.

"Freighter aircraft are usually less fuel efficient than passenger aircraft as they are passenger aircraft turned in to freighters," said a cargo airline executive.