NT NETWORK
Panaji
Giving a boost to air cargo movement from the state, Air India became the first airline at the Dabolim airport to obtain Regulated Agent3 (RA3) certification for its ground handling services.
The national carrier, which is one of the ground handling agents at the airport, obtained RA3 certification recently and post-certification successfully handled the first cargo to London Heathrow Airport on a charter flight on August 22, said an official of the Goa Air Cargo Association on Tuesday.
Speaking to ‘The Navhind Times’, Satyajit Bhattacharjee of the GACA said the RA3 certification will enable point-to-point cargo transportation to take place from Goa to Europe and the US.
“It will help airlines to accept cargo point-to-point instead of taking a circuitous route and increase exports from the state. Pharmaceutical companies in the state can directly export to Europe,” he said.
Bhattacharjee added that the RA3 certification is expected to increase capacity utilisation of the cargo terminal at the Dabolim airport.
The airport presently has the capacity to transport about 3,000 tonne of cargo annually. However, capacity utilisation is low at about 60 per cent presently because of restrictions in transporting to Europe and US sectors.
In 2019-20, air cargo traffic from Dabolim decreased 400 tonne to 1,800 tonne. The cargo traffic was 2,200 tonne in 2018-19.
About 98 per cent of the goods transported are perishables, viz. vegetables and fruits from agri-exporters in Maharashtra and Karnataka. The cargo was
meant primarily to the Middle East.
Since 2013, the European Union made it mandatory for airports or airport handling agents to have RA3 certification before accepting exports from any country.
The Dabolim airport is not RA3 certified and neither were any of the ground handling agents until now.
“Post the certification it is likely that cargo airlines will sign an agreement with AI and start transporting goods to European countries,” explained Bhattacharjee.
With the state being a pharmaceutical exporting hub cargo operators are hopeful that units located in the state will start using the air cargo facilities at Dabolim.
The coronavirus pandemic has affected the air cargo transportation from the state as international flight services have not started properly excluding the Vande Bharat evacuation flights.
From March 25 2020, the Airport Authority of India Cargo Logistics and Allied Services Company Ltd is the custodian of all types of air cargo originating from the Dabolim airport.
Previously CONCOR was the custodian of air cargo in the state.