India's Coimbatore International Airport cargo complex is operating 90 per cent under capacity and is losing out to rivals Kochi and Chennai with its limited cargo handling capacity, lack of land for development and runway space, according to Shipping Gazette.
The airport, serving Tamil Nadu's second city of 930,000 people, has a 9,810-foot runway, sufficient to handle small cargo aircraft, reported The Hindu daily of Chennai.
International cargo volumes fell by 163 tonnes in the last fiscal year. The airport's cargo complex is capable of handling 100 tonnes, but only 10 tonnes a day passes through.
International cargo movement was 2,537 tonnes (including exports and imports) during 2013-14, down from 2,700 tonnes the previous fiscal. Exports fell from 2,597 to 2,453 tonnes, while imports dropped from 103 tonnes during 2012-13 to 84 tonnes in the last fiscal.
Domestic cargo movement registered a marginal increase, rising to 6,129 tonnes, from 5,866 tonnes in 2012-13.
Unnamed senior officials in the cargo section said Coimbatore had tremendous potential for increasing the cargo movement. Garments and engineering sectors alone could drive this growth. These products were now being trucked to Kochi or Chennai.
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