Prabhu keen on making India next cargo hub

Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu today chaired a meeting of airlines and airport operators during which he stressed the need for making India the next cargo hub.

Prabhu emphasised on manufacturing of aircraft hardware in India, developing a robust chopper service and carrying out a demand survey for development of routes.

Talking to reporters later, the minister said suggestions have been invited from all stakeholders on the proposed cargo policy as the aim was to make "India the next cargo hub".

SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh, who attended the meeting, said there is a great potential for air cargo in India, which is set to become a USD 5 trillion industry by 2025, and the minister stressed that the opportunity should not be missed in achieving the stated objectives.

"We also told the airlines and airports that service delivery is extremely important," Prabhu said.

The minister said that as aviation is a service driven industry, customer feedback was crucial for better service delivery.

The suggestions of members of Parliament should also be taken note of "in a proper manner" for bettering services, he said.

Prabhu said the government is undertaking programmes for skill development in cooperation with airlines as there was a huge job requirement in the civil aviation sector and related sectors also.

The meeting today was described as an introductory one where the minister sought to take suggestions from the stakeholders in the aviation sector. During the deliberations, he praised the efforts of all stakeholders in achieving close to 30 per cent growth during the last couple of months.