The Hindu Business Line : SIA Cargo to run 17 weekly freighter flights from India

SIA Cargo has increased its weekly freighters that operate from five gateway cities in the country to 17, the airlines General Manager-India, Mr Kuah Boon Kiam, said on Monday.

"From this month onwards, we will operate 17 weekly freighters, up from 13 which were operated previously. We have added two more services from Delhi and one each from Chennai and Bangalore," Mr Kauh told Business Line. The increase in frequency will see it offer an additional 160 tonnes of cargo capacity to the market. The freighters operate in both the eastern and western direction with the main markets in the latter being in the US and Europe.

The latest development means that SIA Cargo offers a four times-a-week service from Delhi and a five times-a-week service from both Chennai and Bangalore, apart from offering a twice-a-week service from Mumbai.

In addition, the decision of the airline to start two new flights from Singapore to Ahmedabad and Amritsar, respectively will also provide an additional cargo capacity of about 45 tonnes per week from each of these cities.

The airline launched a three times-a-week flight between Singapore and Ahmedabad earlier this year while the Amritsar-Singapore flight was launched earlier this month. Mr Kuah said that the airline had already started receiving inquiries regarding movement of cargo like perishable commodities and sports goods from Amritsar on the newly launched flight.

Similarly, from Ahmedabad, the airline was transporting a variety of materials including fabrics, garments and some pharmaceutical products.

Officials were hopeful that the cargo movement on the Amritsar flight would also pick up in the same fashion as had happened in Ahmedabad. "Initially, the cargo carriage on the Ahmedabad flight was light. But now, the flight is also doing well in terms of the cargo that is being carried. We feel the same thing is likely to happen on the Amritsar flight," officials said.