‘Aviation industry focus tilts towards cargo operations'

Thiruvananthapuram, May 16:

After a disastrous decline 2008, demand for cargo transport rebounded sharply in 2010, says Mr Febi Varghese Managing Director, Kerala State Industrial Enterprises.

AIR CARGO OPS

KSIE is a Government-owned undertaking involved in air cargo operations and is a custodian of air cargo complexes at airports in Kerala.

The sharp fall in industrial activity from the global economic downturn, together with the rising price of fuel, had led to a 13 per cent drop in cargo traffic during 2008-2009.

But world air cargo traffic is expected to triple over the next 20 years, averaging a six per cent annual growth, Mr Varghese said.

He delivered the keynote address on the subject at the International Cargo and Logistics Conference in Kuala Lumpur recently.

World GDP and world air cargo traffic are strongly correlated and any change in GDP will have a direct bearing on cargo traffic also.

INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY

World industrial activity is also forecast to expand at approximately four per cent per year for the next two decades, which would boost the growth of air cargo traffic.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-others/tp-states/article3426794.ece