India: AAI aims for 7,000 tonnes cargo for Tiruchi airport

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has set cargo targets for eight international airports, including Tiruchi and Chennai for the current fiscal, even as the export cargo there has witnessed a steady growth over the years.

The fast-growing non-metro Tiruchi airport has been set a target of 7,081 tonnes for the 2016-17 financial year with the monthly cargo target fixed at 590 tonnes.

The AAI headquarters has asked the airport officials to monitor the freight movements on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to achieve the target.

Airport sources said this was the first time that the AAI headquarters had fixed the cargo target for Tiruchi airport.

The AAI had set separate cargo targets for Lucknow, Guwahati, Coimbatore, Mangaluru, Kolkata, and Amritsar international airports.

The little over 7,000 tonne target set for Tiruchi airport comes at a time when the airport witnessed an impressive 34 per cent growth in freight volume handled in the 2015-16 fiscal as compared to the previous year.

Although the Tiruchi airport authorities internally fixed a target of 6,000 tonnes for 2015-16 fiscal, the airport handled 6,662 tonnes with export cargo accounting for the bulk.

The sources said around 18 to 20 tonnes of export cargo was shipped every day through various overseas airlines. Perishables such as vegetables and flowers continue to occupy the bulk of export cargo shipped from there.

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