HIGH FUEL COSTS HANDICAP NEW DELHI -HWANG

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Thursday, 27 July 2006

An airline air freight chief has told a major cargo summit that high fuel costs in New Delhi are putting the airport at a big disadvantage with its competitors.

Hwang Teng Aun, president Singapore Airlines Cargo, said fuel costs were at least 10 per cent higher than most of Asia and 14 per cent higher than in the United States. This coupled with the limited handling options at in Delhi, despite it being situated in “a very strategic position” – between Asia, Europe and the United States - were proving to be “a major handicap”.

He told the India Cargo Summit that the role of airlines in the global supply chain could not be overstated. In this age of globalisation, he said, there could be no supply chain without airliner capacity.

The summit also heard that IATA and its constituent airline partners were committed to an e-freight system – thereby eliminating 95 per cent of the air freight paperwork by 2010.

Robey Lal, country manager, India International Air Transport Association, said the move was a huge task involving 16,000 stakeholders, 270 carriers and 15,000 freight forwarders – but they were committed to the task by tackling what he called the Business Stream, Legal Stream and Technical Stream of the industry.