Coimbatore: The city airport’s cargo department has for the first time sent an export shipment of 2.5 tonnes perishable cargo by bonded trucking to Kochi on Wednesday evening. Officials said this was a rare occurrence in South India. The cargo, which mainly consist of vegetables, will be sent to Jeddah in Saudia or Saudi Arabian Airlines at night from Kochi.Earlier, Coimbatore airport director N Mahalingam flagged off the bonded truck with the perishable cargo to Kochi. “We had to send this shipment of perishables, including vegetables like onions and drumstick, booked to Jeddah by bonded trucking as we have only passenger airlines flying out internationally that also to Sharjah, Singapore and Colombo,” said S Subramaniam, senior air cargo manager.“There are space constraints because all international flights flying out of the city are relatively smaller and cargo space is available only after passengers are allocated their luggage space. On the other hand, Kochi has wide-bodied aircrafts like Boeing 747, which despite being a passenger flight can accommodate such a sizeable shipment,” he said.Cargo officials hope the shipment is just a start to many more perishable shipments by bonded trucking. “Perishables never travel by bonded trucking as shelf life is wasted. But exporters are now taking advantage of the road infrastructure between Coimbatore and Kochi. It’s just 3.5 hours journey, instead of the earlier six hours,” said a cargo official. “We hope more exporters to follow suit. This will help export cargo from the city to grow this financial year.”Perishables, including vegetables, fruits and flowers, constitute 50% of Coimbatore airport’s export volume, which is around 350 tonnes a year. “Earlier, we were confined to shipments of fruits, vegetables and flowers to Sharjah and Singapore alone,” Subramaniam said.

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