The Hindu Business Line : Sri Lankan freight link to Coimbatore next month

SRI LANKAN Airlines may test business potential in Coimbatore for air cargo by commissioning an exclusive freight service shortly. The airline has scheduled to start its maiden freight service by the first week of next month.

To start with, the Sri Lankan freight service from Colombo to Coimbatore and return is expected to be run twice a week and the flight, an AN-12 aircraft, will have a cargo carrying capacity of around 18 tonnes.

"Though the flight schedule including the days of operation is yet to be finalised, it will be twice-a-week flight and the preferable days of flight from Colombo-Coimbatore-Colombo may be Wednesdays and Saturdays," said Mr Ravi Madhavan, Cargo Manager India, Sri Lankan Airlines.

Mr Madhavan told Business Line that depending on the commercial viability/volume generation of the export/import cargo to and from Coimbatore, the number of flights could be increased later.

The AN-12 aircraft will carry the cargo in unitised form in four pellets and the shippers targeting their cargo for Far-East, West-Asia and Europe can look for the launch of the freight which will have Colombo as its cargo hub. The airline is expected to reach the cargo moved out of Coimbatore to its destination in 24 hours.

Besides the export/import cargo meant for Coimbatore region, the airline is also eyeing on the considerable volume of import throughput meant for the neighbouring Kerala centres such as Kochi and Kozhikode, which can be handled via Coimbatore once the Sri Lankan Airline's air cargo service is started.

At present, bulk of the air cargo imports destined to the Coimbatore region as well as the parts of adjoining Kerala stations is being moved from either Chennai or Kochi and these would slowly get shifted to Coimbatore once the Sri Lankan cargo's Coimbatore operation stabilises.

A sizeable volume of unattended baggage imports meant for Kerala will be an immediate business potential for the Sri Lankan Airlines' freight service in Coimbatore.

To facilitate this, Sri Lankan Airlines is working out on a bonded trucking facility which would enable it to handle the customs cleared import of cargo that can be despatched to and from Coimbatore to Kerala stations by road, according to Mr Madhavan.