ABU DHABI: The newly introduced Air India Express flight to Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, is beginning to lift overseas freight from Tiruchi and international cargo movement is expected to improve further. The airline launched the daily service, Tiruchi – Sharjah – Tiruchi sector on September 14. Although there is a controlled booking of shipment to Sharjah at the moment, sources feel that overall freight movement will perk up soon with the airline beginning to lift cargo.
A small beginning has been made with the airline lifting a little over one tonne since the launch of the service. Sources say flowers and vegetables were the main consignments being exported to Sharjah after freight rates were declared by the airline days after the new service was introduced. There are a lot of queries from shippers regarding export of cargo to Sharjah.
The Air India Express is operating two overseas flights – one to Singapore and another to Dubai from Tiruchi every day lifting about 60 tonnes overseas cargo a month. Although Kuwait has no direct connectivity from Tiruchi, around 2.5 tonnes of vegetables are dispatched there every day via Colombo. Consignments are regularly shipped to Maldives, Kuala Lumpur and Dubai, said an official. Occasionally, shipments have gone to Reunion Island near France where Tamil population is dense as well as to Brunei. Food stuff and flowers are exported to countries such as Canada and France from there.
