Coimbatore: Ever since the city airport’s cargo department sent its first bonded shipment of perishables to Kochi successfully last week, it has been receiving orders for one perishable truck shipment daily. It has already sent around 20 tonnes perishable goods to Kochi in the past seven days. This has prompted the cargo logistics company to consider extending bonded trucking operations to Kozhikode too.On Wednesday last week, the cargo wing had sent its first shipment of perishables to Kochi. Perishables constitute 50% of the airport’s business of 350 tonnes cargo a month. “After the first shipment successfully reached Jeddah via Kochi, we have been getting perishable bonded trucking shipments every working day,” said S Subramaniam, senior official with AAI Cargo Logistics and Allied Service. “The quantity ranges from two tonnes to five tonnes.”Perishables were earlier sent only to Sharjah and Singapore by direct flights Air Arabia and Silk Air, because they could not afford any delay. “With the growing demand for our vegetables and flowers in the Middle East and other South East Asian countries, and bonded trucking operations removing the problem of space constraints in our international passenger flights, we expect our business from bonded trucking to exceed that of direct flights,” the official said.Bengaluru-based Sreeji Translogistics, which handles majority of bonded trucking operations from the city, said they expect their bonded truck movement of perishables to Kochi to exceed 300 tonnes a month, if the momentum remains. “This is a huge market we can capitalize on and will keep growing,” said Dileepa BM, the firm’s CEO.Now, airport authorities are considering Kozhikode to add to their list of destinations. “Compared to Bengaluru and Chennai, it is easy to reach Kozhikode, which is a hub for international flights to Middle East,” an airport official said. From Kochi, it will take only about 30 minutes reach Kozhikode.“More airlines can also capitalize on the growing market potential in the city, despite them not having flight operations here. Many agents are already enquiring and requesting us to take up bonded trucking to Kozhikode. If that comes through, shipments of perishables to Kozhikode alone will come to around 150 tonnes a month,” Dileepa said.It was only a few days ago that shipping companies decided to take a chance with the newly expanded Coimbatore-Kochi highway, as it takes just four hours to reach the airport. Airlines that take most of the shipments from the city to the Middle East and Europe are Fed Ex, Emirates, Etihad Airlines and Cathay Pacific, and they operate wide bodied aircrafts. The airport also has bonded trucking operations to Chennai, Kochi and Bengaluru. Fed Ex is the main airline in Bengaluru that takes shipments from the city.The cargo department is buoyed by this new development. “Now, we don’t have to worry about space constraints on passenger flights anymore,” an official said. It is to be noted that the smaller passenger flights landing in the city have space embargoes like no single shipment or package of more than 20kg. In wide bodied aircraft, the embargo is almost 1.2 tonnes.

Stay updated with all the Coimbatore Latest News headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.