IndiGo inducted its first freighter, an Airbus A321 in an attempt to initiate a cargo service. The Passenger to Freighter (P2F) conversion of the A321 was carried out by Elbe FlugzeugWerke (EFW) in Singapore. IndiGo plans to use the aircraft for both domestic and international missions by transporting products such as valuables, express shipments, perishables, general cargo, documents, and couriers.
Mahesh Malik, Chief Commercial Officer-CarGo, IndiGo, said: “The CarGo business brought in revenues when the scheduled commercial flights were at a standstill.”
The A321 freighter will offer 24 container positions and support a payload of up to 27 tonnes.
The airline claims that the aircraft is uniquely crafted for IndiGo using the current vast pool of A320 family pilots, and able to service markets between China in the east and the Gulf in the west, not forgetting the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries to the north. The airline is in process of converting three more passenger jets A321CEOs to freighter aircraft.
Indian airlines are increasing their cargo capacity since the e-commerce and freighter industry witnessed a boom during the pandemic. The Indian freighter fleet has seen a dramatic rise to 28 aircraft from just 5 over the last few years.
According to the Airport Authority of India, the Indian airports handled 3.14 million tonnes of freight during FY2022. This is 93.5% of the freight handled during FY2018.
The segment is expected to witness a drastic change in the coming month with more airlines like SpiceJet and Bluedart planning to induct more aircraft while newer players like QuikJet and Pradhan Express planning to take a plunge in the freighter industry.