Air India ships life-saving pharma cargo from Delhi to Brussels
This was Air India’s first airport-to-door cargo service involving multimodal logistics.
On May 21, 2025, Air India completed a pharmaceutical cargo delivery to Brussels, a city outside its direct flight network, using a combination of air and road transport. The international shipment, originating in Delhi and handled for SUN Pharma, was delivered in 36 hours using a flight to Paris and a cooled truck to Brussels. This was Air India’s first airport-to-door cargo service involving multimodal logistics.
The shipment, packed into four lower-deck pallets, required a stable temperature between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius to maintain drug efficacy. After arriving at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, the cargo was transferred to a temperature-controlled RFS truck, which ensured compliance with pharma-grade transportation standards until reaching the consignee’s warehouse in Brussels.
The initiative marks a strategic expansion of Air India’s cargo capabilities beyond cities it directly serves. Air India currently operates more than 5,000 weekly flights to 45 cities in India and 43 destinations in 31 countries.
This shipment to Brussels demonstrates the airline’s ability to leverage partners and infrastructure to offer extended global logistics. “These first shipments of our new airport-to-door service are a step forward in progressively pivoting our cargo offering from ‘airport-to-airport’ to world-class ‘airport-to-door’ services, delivered to the highest standards,” said Ramesh Mamidala, Head of Cargo, Air India.
In 2024–25, Air India transported more than 4,000 tonnes of pharmaceuticals. The airline plans to expand its airport-to-door cargo services as part of its cargo business strategy.
