The positioning of Air France- KLM in the Indian air cargo industry seems to be a historic and important chapter. In India, Air France started flying freighters decades ago and KLM has been flying in India for several years as well. In the last few years, Air France-KLM-Martinair have developed a significant and steady freighter project in India. One major step taken in this direction is that Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo has added one more weekly cargo flight from Chennai to Amsterdam and two more weekly cargo flights from Mumbai to Amsterdam. Christophe Albert Boucher, Vice President, Asia and Middle East, Air France-KLM–Martinair Cargo, said, “Though we have restricted our freighter capacity worldwide, we have expanded our footprints in India in terms of creating freighter capacity simultaneously.” The European group’s full freighter operations have been under pressure globally and registered a $281 million loss in 2013 giving rise to speculation that the group may completely shut down its full freighter operations globally. Earlier, the cargo carrier used to operate three freighters in Chennai, one in Delhi and two in Mumbai. “We have decided not only to maintain but reinforce the presence of full freighters in India. The first few flights have been full,” Boucher said. He also pointed out that the addition of more fights will see an additional 40 tonnes a week being made available from Mumbai while the cargo capacity from Chennai is likely to remain the same as before at 20 tonnes a week. “The idea is not to increase capacity tremendously but get a set up where we can better optimise our presence. The idea is to maximise the profitability of the flight,” Boucher said. While pharmaceutical products remain important, Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo is also trying to see that it gets mail and couriers on board its flights. As an industry, the issue is not only to get the freighter full but to get the right cargo at the right rates,” he added. Boucher did not give an estimate as to how much the rates could be increased by the company as the plan is still being prepared. He also admitted that the group is struggling with its freighter operations globally but said that the idea behind the revamp of the Indian operations is to make it profitable in the Air France-KLM-Martinair Cargo universe. Air France KLM Martinair Cargo had 26 freighters operational at one point of time but now flies only 10 freighters. “It is true that the Gulf carriers and Chinese carriers are adding more and more of belly cargo capacity which is driving the prices down,” said Boucher. “But for us, definitely there is a pressure to increase the rates,” he added. Apart from operating full freighter aircraft, the Air France-KLM Group is also using the using the space available on regular commercial flights that Air France-KLM operates to various Indian cities to transport cargo. In addition, the cargo airline has bellies (in passenger flights), which are of course combined with the cargo – in that sequence. Boucher believes in a long term operation and said, “Although in the freighter business, we are looking at step by step growth in our freighter capacity in India and we do that in a way that we want to make sure that we can stay for the long term. So we started with Chennai and then we added Delhi and then Mumbai – in a proper sequence to maintain our long term strategy. Now we have increased the frequency on these routes rather than expanding in our cities. In addition, we are looking at all the commodities in the Indian air cargo market.” However, Air France-KLM-Martinair is one of the main pharmaceutical products carriers in the world and is thereby striving to grow in the Indian pharma business, both from product and capacity perspective. The airline started the Mumbai-Amsterdam freighter service with the pharma business in mind. “If I talk about pharma operations conducted at the airports, I would say that for pharmaceuticals, I am feeling quite comfortable with the CPC in Mumbai, although it will hit its capacity somewhere down the line as well. If you look at Delhi, in fact, both the cargo terminals are being further developed by Cargo Service Centre and Celebi.” But Boucher mentioned that the carrier is not only focusing on pharma, it is working on other commodities too which have great potential in the Indian market. Talking about the future, Boucher said, “Indian exports have been robust except for some soft patches. So there is room for multiple carriers in this market serving different segments. Air France-KLM- Martinair has experienced good growth in India during the last few years and we are positive about further growth opportunities in the years to come.” n