Visakhapatnam Airport observes growth in cargo handling

The Visakhapatnam Airport is observing a substantial growth in the cargo handling for the financial year (FY) 2018-19 and would observe a considerable rise in future.

Domestic Cargo

In Q-1 of FY-2018-19, the Visakhapatnam Airport has successfully handled 1481 tons of cargo, which comprises 557 tons of incoming and 924 tons of outgoing cargo. There is a 15.43% growth when compared to Q-1 of FY-2017-18, where the inbound was 516 tons and outbound cargo was 767 tons totaling 1283 tones. We would also like to mention that for the entire FY of 2017-18, the cargo handling was 4846 tons, out of which 2260 tons was incoming and 2586 tons is outgoing cargo.

International Cargo

In Q-1 of FY-2018-19, the Visakhapatnam Airport has successfully handled

133 tons, which comprises 49.29 tons of incoming and 83.74 tons of outgoing cargo. There is a 747% growth when compared to Q-1 of FY-2017-18, where the inbound handling was 12.75 tons and outbound cargo was 2.94 tons totaling 15.70 tones. We would also like to mention that for the entire FY of 2017-18, the handling was 296.86 tons, out of which 142.21 tones were incoming and 154.65 tons is outgoing cargo.

We would also like to mention the growth in the domestic and International sectors was possible with the continuous effort of APATA and with the support of our Hon’ble Member of Parliament Dr.K.Hari Babu and Airport Director in resolving various issues in consultation with AAI and Sri.P.Ashok Gajapathi Raju, former Minister for Civil Aviation. Some of the notable achievements are given below.

The opening of International Air Cargo complex
Expansion of Infrastructure of Domestic Cargo
Creation of Temperature Control Zones for Perishable Cargo.
Sanction of Dedicated CISF / Customs Manpower for terminal
Sanction and Appointment of Drug Control Officer for Pharma Exports
Sanction of Animal Quarantine officer to clear any marine live exports

In view of the above developments, some of the pharma companies started exporting /importing pharma products through Visakhapatnam cargo terminal instead of using Airports from the neighboring states Telangana and Tamilnadu by saving precious fuel and time.
As regards Textile Sector, the Brandix has benefitted by importing input raw material and exporting finished apparel directly from Visakhapatnam Airport.

The multi-product units of VSEZ have also been benefited by importing Machinery Parts/Engineering Goods and exporting Diamonds through Visakhapatnam Terminal.
The marine industry has also taken advantage of this new facility and planning to use the same for importing (Brooder stock) mother shrimp/(Seeds) and exporting marine products.
The fisheries sector in the state of Andhra Pradesh is showing highest growth, which is 26% in the GDP. The Andhra Pradesh stands highest in the country in the fisheries sector.
We hope that with the available facilities and further expansion in future by adding multi-product temperature control zones, high quality of packaging equipment’s and bigger X-ray machines and latest handling equipment’s will leads to further growth in exports in the Visakhapatnam airport.
Still, many pharma companies are continuing their export operations from Hyderabad and Chennai as their

head offices are located in these cities and also the availability of several airline offices. It may also be a fact that they are benefiting from good volume discounts for a lower price from these airports.
The APATA is facilitating a meeting with all the leading airlines and pharma companies under the leadership of Hon’ble Member of Parliament Dr.K.Hari Babu to ensure that the same volume of discounts is made available from Visakhapatnam airport to ensure highest growth rate in the coming financial years.
We are also hopeful to bring dedicated airlines to Visakhapatnam.