CARGOCONNECT-JUNE2026 - Flipbook - Page 50
COVER STORY
AIR CARGO ASCENDS
ment potential remains one of the biggest
untapped opportunities within the global
cargo ecosystem. Regulatory reforms
around transshipment are beginning to
create momentum, but India still has signi昀椀cant ground to cover before emerging
as a naturally preferred cargo hub between
East and West. Sutch believes the country’s
strategic geographic positioning gives it a
unique opportunity to capture transfer cargo
currently routed through hubs in the Middle
East and Southeast Asia, provided network
connectivity, handling e昀케ciency, and customs
integration continue improving at scale.
The challenge, however, is not purely
infrastructural. In many cases, cargo capability already exists across several Indian
airports, particularly in tier II and III cities,
but commercial volumes are still evolving.
Sutch explains that the issue is often one
of market maturity and network utilisation
rather than physical infrastructure alone. As
airline networks expand and manufacturing
ecosystems deepen across inland India, he
believes, these emerging cargo stations to
play a far larger role within domestic and
international supply chains.
That evolution is simultaneously placing
greater focus on multimodal integration
itself. Malik agrees and attests that India’s
biggest cargo opportunity lies in how e昀昀ectively it can connect its rapidly growing
manufacturing clusters with integrated air,
road, rail, and maritime logistics networks.
He stresses that future competitiveness of
Indian air cargo will depend not merely on
airport expansion, but on how seamlessly
cargo can move between production centres,
logistics parks, Dedicated Freight Corridors
(DFCs), ports, and airports with minimal
friction and reduced transit delays.
According to Malik, strengthening air
cargo corridors connected to DFCs, expanding integrated logistics parks, improving
last-mile connectivity, and accelerating
customs digitisation will become central
to unlocking efficiency gains across the
ecosystem. Initiatives such as the PM Gati
Shakti National Master Plan (PMGS-NMP)
are already creating the digital backbone
for integrated multimodal infrastructure
planning, but the real gains, he suggests,
will emerge when physical connectivity and
operational coordination begin functioning
as a single synchronised network.
From a global airline perspective,
stronger multimodal integration within
India would also significantly improve
international cargo connectivity. Malik
notes that better inland cargo connectivity
would allow global hubs such as Abu Dhabi
to connect Indian production centres with
overseas markets more e昀케ciently, improving
end-to-end supply-chain speed, reliability,
and predictability.
At the operational level, however,
improving efficiency will also require
addressing one of the industry’s most
persistent challenges: dwell time reduction.
Across global cargo hubs, it couldn’t be more
evident how faster cargo movement, shorter
processing windows, and real-time shipment
visibility are increasingly becoming decisive
competitive di昀昀erentiators.
Sutch believes India’s evolving widebody
network could become a major catalyst in
this transition. The introduction of highercapacity aircraft capable of palletised cargo
movement and longer-haul connectivity is
expected to create more structured cargo
昀氀ows, improve throughput e昀케ciency, and
support smoother cargo transfers across
both domestic and international markets. As
Indian carriers expand long-haul operations
and airport ecosystems mature alongside
them, he notes that the country is steadily
positioning itself closer to becoming an
integrated global cargo hub rather than
merely a point-to-point market.
Sullivan believes India’s operational
growth trajectory is already beginning to
narrow the gap with some of the world’s
most mature cargo markets. Drawing from
IATA CargoIS data, Sullivan notes that
India’s air cargo uplift today is approaching
levels comparable to Germany, while Indian
carriers including IndiGo, Air India, and
SpiceJet have collectively expanded 昀氀ight
activity at nearly 15% annually, signi昀椀cantly
outpacing several mature European markets.
However, he cautions that the country’s
biggest structural limitation still lies in
connectivity depth itself. While Germany
supports nearly 14,000 direct origin-destination airport pairs, India currently operates
at roughly one-third of that scale, with
around 5,000 direct airport connections.
Although connectivity continues expanding
at nearly 10% annually, Sullivan believes
substantially deeper network integration
will remain essential if the country aims
to evolve from a high-growth market into
India’s cargo competitiveness depends heavily
on multimodal connectivity integrating airports,
rail corridors, ports, and logistics parks.
50 | CARGOCONNECT JUNE 2026
Although India’s
airport connectivity
continues expanding
at nearly 10%
annually, deeper
network integration
will remain essential
if the country aims to
evolve from a highgrowth market into
a globally dominant
cargo hub.
BRENDAN SULLIVAN
GLOBAL HEAD– CARGO,
INTERNATIONAL AIR
TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION
(IATA)
