Photo: Adani /Navi Mumbai
Cargo airlines operating into Mumbai appear caught up in a double-whammy: capacity restrictions at the old airport in Mumbai City, due to airside infrastructure upgrades; and unexpected teething troubles at the new hub, Navi Mumbai International (NMIA).
Both airports at India’s commercial hub are managed by Adani Group, which, with dedicated freighter slots at Mumbai suspended until June next year, has been pushing airlines and other stakeholders to shift cargo operations to NMIA.
In a recent update, NMIA claimed as many as 13 freighter services had already been signed on as the new terminal ramps up its handling systems.
But cargo bottlenecks at both gateways have sparked serious concern among industry stakeholders. Amid mounting congestion and delays, air freight supply chains out of Mumbai are struggling, reports suggest.
Lufthansa Cargo has paused all freighter services into the city since 20 September, disrupting the six weekly flights it normally operates out of the gateway, according to industry updates. The German carrier is expected to resume operations at NMIA from 1 October.
And according to sources, other leading cargo carriers serving India, including Emirates SkyCargo, have relocated their scheduled Mumbai services elsewhere, mainly Bengaluru, in anticipation of operational reliability problems.
The disruption to cargo flows has puzzled many air freight industry voices in Mumbai, as the transition – under “one business management” – had, arguably, been planned well in advance.
Mumbai-based air cargo veteran Joy John told The Loadstar: “The pertinent question is why there is congestion at Mumbai when most freighters have moved out, and why there are bottlenecks at NMIA when the transition was well equipped?”
Sources have pointed their finger at a lack of adequate planning for Mumbai air cargo disruption, particularly when a seasonal uptick linked to festival demand in Q3 was anticipated.
Boasting a more sophisticated air cargo terminal, including some 360,000sq ft for domestic cargo and 255,000sq ft for international cargo, NMIA was estimated to be able to handle some 800,000 tonnes of cargo in the first phase of operations, scaling up to around three million tonnes in phases.
But sources were reporting lengthy truck waits at NMIA, especially for those bringing goods from outside the Mumbai region.
“The Mumbai congestion is a symptom of a rapidly growing and increasingly complex air cargo ecosystem,” said Vineet Malhotra, co-founder and director of local-based Kale Logistics Solutions.
“The answer is not simply more infrastructure and better co-ordination of the infrastructure we already have.”
Mr Malhotra also believes that, when stakeholders have real-time visibility and can plan better, it’s easier to identify and address bottlenecks before they become “queues of alarming proportions”.
Turkish Cargo is said to be the only carrier continuing to operate freighters out of the old airport, as the gateway switchover continues.