CARGO
It’s love Hyderabad First, there was only Lufthansa. Today, the southern city has become very important for carriers from Asia and the latest to fly in will be Thai Airways and Cathay Pacific — both keen to ramp up services to India.
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ven as carriers from Asia struggle to keep their heads in the air – Cathay Pacific, for instance, has seen its profits going down by 61 per cent from a year earlier Thai Airways recently launched its first B747-400F freighter service connecting India to Europe. The once-a-week freighter service will fly the Bangkok-HyderabadFrankfurt route. That, incidentally, will be one more addition to Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) that is vying to become the country's first cargo hub. It also marked a milestone
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P Chunganuwad MD of Thai Airways Cargo and Mail Division
Thai Airways is bullish about India and has worked out a blueprint to tap the air cargo market in the country.
since the service connected RGIA with Far Eastern and European nations. The airport handles four Lufthansa freighters a week. In addition, a number of other airlines, according to sources at the airport, have started showing interest to
use its cargo facilities that are possibly the very best in India. The converted B747 is the first of Thai Airways freighters to be inducted for service on the India route. A second freighter is scheduled to start operations from May
CRUISING HEIGHTS May 2012
this year: it will operate on the Bangkok-ChennaiAmsterdam route. These freighters with 100 tonnes capacity each is part of a well planned strategy by the South-East Asian carrier to become a carrier of choice from India for transportation of pharma, electronic components, fruits, flowers and textile from the southern belt, home to top Indian industries. In addition to these products, Thai has decided to apportion a part of the cargo space within the freighter for heavy-density cargo that will be marketed at a premium. The airline hopes that the space will be used by other