Chartered cargo flight to Male from tomorrow

By S. Anil Radhakrishnan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JULY 16. Chartered cargo flight operations using a Russian-made AN-8 aircraft will commence from the International Airport here to the Maldives from Tuesday morning to clear the backlog of export cargo to the island nation.

The Director General of Civil Aviation, Mr. H. S. Khola, has given approval for operating the wet-leased aircraft in the Thiruvananthapuram-Male-Thiruvananthapuram sector without the mandatory Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) as a special case to clear the backlog of 60 tonnes of perishables and 20 tonnes of general cargo per week.

Although the DGCA has been given permission to operate the cargo flight on June 26, the Maldives Government approved the operation of the chartered flight this week and that too on an `adhoc basis'. The aircraft, which has a capacity of 11 tonnes, would commence its maiden operation from here on July 18 morning. Initially, the cargo operations will be for two days and later on will be extended to four days, as permitted by the DGCA.

The white coloured twin-engine aircraft with red lines and named `Mandela' landed at the international airport from Sharjah with import cargo at 1-30 p.m. today and has been accorded permission by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to park near the Air Cargo Complex near Shankhumukhom. The aircraft will be positioned at Thiruvananthapuram and the crew based in the city.

The aircraft, with a seven-member crew, is piloted by Capt. Slivko. Owned by Trans Africa Airline, the aircraft has been taken on wet lease for three months by S & J Sales Corporation on behalf of exporters. In addition to the wet lease fee of $ 460 per flying hours, the exporters will have to meet all other expenses such as the cost of aviation fuel, airport handling and parking charges and accommodation of crew and their allowance.

The airline, based in Equatorial Guinea in West Africa, will take care of the handling of the export cargo, which comprises perishables such as fruits and vegetables, to the island nation at the airport here. According to Mr. V. Stanley Paulus of the S & J Sales Corporation, the operation would be profitable if the aircraft is able to fly a minimum of 70 hours a month.

The exporters are also looking into whether the chartered aircraft can bring in cargo back to the city from Maldives. It is learnt that Emirate Airways has also promised exporters with transshipment cargo for the return flight.

The backlog of cargo to Maldives started mounting following the cancellation of the flights operated by Air Maldives last February. The decision to operate cargo flights was taken at a high-level meeting convened here on May 5 by Mr. Khola on the instructions of the Union Civil Aviation Minister, Mr. Sharad Yadav, following the exporters memorandum about backlog of cargo and huge loss of foreign exchange.

At the meeting, it was suggested that the exporters could bring an aircraft on charter and operate it under the `open sky policy' for cargo operations. Mr. Khola told the meeting that Government might exempt TCAS for all cargo operations on the sector if the operators fully comply with security arrangements. The delay in commencing operations followed the stand taken by the DGCA that exemption of TCAS can be considered only for the Thiruvananthapuram-Male-Thiruvananthapuram sector and not for the Colombo sector. This meant that except positioning flights at Colombo, the Colombo-Thiruvananthapuram-Colombo sector can be operated only as a ferry, i.e., without any cargo on board.

Perishables such as fruits and vegetables were smuggled by `carriers' in Indian Airlines flights from the capital following the delay in commencement of cargo flights and the inability of the IA to operate additional services to clear the backlog.

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