Foreign airline to increase cargo flights

KOLKATA: Just hours before AlitaliaCargo’s maiden flight to the city, officials of the freighter division ofthe Italian flag carrier said they were working on plans to increase thefrequency of cargo service to twice a week.The first Alitalia cargoflight to the city landed at the NSCB cargo terminal on Saturday morning andpicked up 35 tonnes of export goods before flying off non-stop to Milan.“It’s great! We’ve had to close our bookings even before thefirst flight arrived despite the on-going strike by cargo employees at Kolkataairport,� said Nobel Vaz, general manager of Alitalia Cargo for India,Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Maldives.“We should have thesecond flight in place in a couple of months. Though the exact date hasn’tbeen decided yet, we’ve decided to fly in and out every Tuesday,�Vaz said, adding that export orders from Kolkata was good enough to justify anadditional flight. At present, Lufthansa is the only other European airline tofly a cargo aircraft to Kolkata. These apart, the rest of the goods aretransported in passenger carriers of British Airways, Singapore Airlines, ThaiAirways, Royal Jordanian, Royal Brunei, Bangladesh Biman, Druk Air and IndianAirlines flights to Bangkok and Yangon.Domestic carriers like IA,Jet Airways and Air Sahara also carry small quantities of cargo to Delhi andMumbai for reloading in international carriers. “What’s happened inKolkata is a peculiar phenomenon. Though export hasn’t grown appreciablywith some months even showing negative growth, there is a demand due to lack ofcapacity as several airlines have pulled out in the past.We have therefore,flown in to fill the void,� the official said.Currently, theexport basket from Kolkata comprises leather and leather goods, apparels,engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, mica, jute products and handicrafts. VinodSeth, managing director of Allied Aviation, the agents for the freighter in thecity, believes there is tremendous scope for export of perishables. At present,Alitalia Cargo has nine freighters out of Delhi, two out of Mumbai, three out ofChennai and one out of Dhaka.