Emirates SkyCargo woos Indian cargo industry

Ram Menen, Emirates Divisional Senior Vice President Cargo, and Prakash Nair, Manager Network Cargo Sales Development, accepted the award on behalf of Emirates SkyCargo at a ceremony that was attended by the key figures of the Indian cargo sector.

While delivering his address at the ACI conference on the theme The Emerging Market-The Road Ahead, Mr Menen urged the industry to be prepared to handle the expected growth.

"The trade market with the highest growth is likely to be within the Asia Pacific region where its share will go from 24 per cent to 26 per cent by 2011, and India and China will be major players in this growth," he said.

In order to sustain the growth spurt India is currently experiencing, Mr Menen emphasised the need for the country to address the problems it faces as a result of its fragmented bureaucracy, adding that it must increase spending on infrastructure projects from the current 4.6 per cent of GDP to eight per cent. He said the country required $30 billion in infrastructure investment in the next five years to sustain its eight per cent annual economic growth.

"The cost of logistics in India is more than 13 per cent of the total GDP compared to less than 10 per cent in Western Europe and North America and the main reason for this is the inefficiency of the system," Mr Menen pointed out. "Efficient supply chain management is the only way to bring these costs down and for this to happen, logistics infrastructure must consider developments in science of the supply chain."

After a series of high-level appointments and capacity expansion in India, Emirates SkyCargo spared no effort to reach out to the key players in the cargo market. The carrier targeted ACI 2008, the biggest event for the logistics operators in the region, to further leverage its efforts to this end.

Mr Nair confirmed that India was poised to be one of the main points of growth for Emirates SkyCargo's operations this year. "Our participation at the ACI forum will help establish a global focus on the region. With the launch of Sao Paulo last year, we now connect India to 99 destinations in 62 countries across six continents via our hub in Dubai."

Emirates SkyCargo operates three freighter flights to India - two to Mumbai and one to Chennai - using Boeing 747 freighters, as well as offering bellyhold capacity on more than 95 passenger flights in each direction per week. It offers the latest technologies in air cargo containers, ground handling equipment, and highly trained staff on some of the industry's most advanced aircraft.