The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Cargo flights suspend operations

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Thursday, May 22, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Cargo flights suspend operations

Krishnaprasad

Exporters, importers defer despatching of goods for a week

Bangalore: Some international airlines have temporarily suspended operation of some of their cargo flights to and from Bangalore owing to “unclear” situation existing at the Bengaluru International Airport (BIA) at Devanahalli.

Though the airlines are keen on operating from the new airport owing to availability of better infrastructure for cargo handling system compared with the HAL Airport, they were unable to start their operation immediately as the cargo and customs house agents are still not made available with the space by the two cargo handing agencies at the new airport.

Also, the airlines have not been given information on Customs clearance and other related information on transportation of cargo, said some air cargo agents and customs house agents.

Temporary shifting

This situation has resulted in temporary shifting of a portion of the international air cargo (both export and import) operation to Chennai and Mumbai airports.

Also, some exporters and importers have deferred despatching of goods for a week till the situation is improved at the BIA, they said.

According to them, all these developments will result in reduction of about 1,200 to 1,500 tonnes of air cargo operation from Bangalore in the next couple of days.

About 30,000 tonnes of goods are being transported to and from Bangalore through air cargo every year.

Meanwhile, only one of the two cargo handling warehouses — Menzies Aviation Bobba Bangalore Limited — is ready to receive cargo while the other — Air India-SATS Cargo Handling Limited — is yet to be readied as nearly 25 per cent of its works are still pending, said the agents while expressing their unhappiness over lack of facilities.

Moreover, there is no space for cargo agents and customs house agents for getting the cargo cleared from the Customs. Confirming cancellation of cargo flights for about a week, a spokesperson of an international airline said that they cannot afford to operate when there is uncertainty about availability of cargo for transportation.

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