Page 12 - ITLN March-April 2025

Industry Report
Indian Air Cargo

How is the Indian 2025 reached 113,662.9 tonnes,
up 6.9% from 106,354.1 tonnes in
air cargo sector January 2024. Between April 2024 and
January 2025, domestic cargo stood at
1,168,600 tonnes, a 6.5% increase over
flying to new 1,097,516.1 tonnes during the same

period the year before.
This recovery—and now expansion—
is fueled by multiple factors: the
heights? rise of high-value manufacturing in
India, stronger trade ties with North
America and Europe, and significant
investments in airport infrastructure
and cargo handling capacity. The result
is a more diversified and resilient air
freight ecosystem, better equipped
India’s air cargo hits 195,000 tonnes per month, up 13% from to meet the needs of both domestic
exporters and international buyers.
2019, signalling a structural shift in global trade dynamics. Kuehne+Nagel, which handles 47%

Rajarshi Chatterjee of its total shipments via air freight in
India, has seen this transformation
nce overshadowed by the firsthand. “We’ve witnessed consistent
booming passenger aviation growth in our air freight volumes over
sector, India’s air freight the past few years, driven by the rapid
Oindustry is now charting a expansion of manufacturing, and
dynamic growth trajectory of its own. increasing demand for time-sensitive
Over the past five years, the country’s shipments in sectors like healthcare,
cargo sector has emerged from high-tech, and perishables,” says
the shadows of pandemic-induced Deepak Kumar, National Air Logistics
disruption to become a key pillar Manager, Kuehne+Nagel India,
of national and international trade, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives. “With
adapting rapidly to shifts in global India’s growing role in global trade,
demand, export composition, and we’re well-positioned to capitalise
supply chain strategies. on emerging opportunities in the air
While much of the initial growth freight sector.”
post-Covid was about regaining lost
ground, the momentum has since Currently, the Indian Key hubs powering the growth
evolved into a broader, more structural international air cargo India’s air cargo sector is flying high.
shift. As Managing Director of Trade market is running at In the past year, Indian airports
and Transport Group, Frederic Horst about 195,000 tonnes per collectively handled 3.66 million tonnes
explains, “A lot of the growth we have month – which is about of cargo, with international freight
been seeing in the last couple of years accounting for 62% of the total volume.
has only put us back to where we were 13% higher than 2019. Four major
pre-2020. However, currently, the Frederic Horst airports—
Indian international air cargo market Trade and Transport Group Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and
is running at about 195,000 tonnes Chennai—continued to dominate,
per month, which is about 13% higher contributing nearly 75% of all cargo
than in 2019.” 2025, the total international cargo movement.
Recent data from the Airport Authority handled reached 1,928,671.9 tonnes, Among the key trends, the Dimerco
of India (AAI) underscores this trend. In marking a 17.2% surge compared to Asia Pacific March
January 2025, Indian airports handled 1,645,574.1 tonnes during the same 2025 report notes
184,273.8 tonnes of international period the previous year. that “air freight
freight—a 7.1% increase over January On the domestic front, cargo capacity and
2024’s 171,988.6 tonnes. Over the ten- volumes are also growing steadily. rates for March
month period from April 2024 to January Domestic freight handled in January are expected to
10
March - April 2025 www.itln.in