Buoyed by solid growth in cargo traffic, Cathay Pacific Airways plans to increase frequency of its freighter services from here to Indian cities.
The city-headquartered airline has freight services to six Indian cities and there are 25 freighter departures every week from India.
A sign of significant market potential in the freighter segment, the carrier has seen an eight per cent jump in cargo volumes in first nine months (January-September) of this year.
"At this moment, we plan to optimise our network base in India and want to increase our frequency here," Cathay Pacific's General Manager (cargo sales and marketing) Mark Sutch told PTI here.
The carrier provides freighter services from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata. The twice-a-week service between Kolkata and Hong Kong was launched in March last year.
On whether the airline would be adding more destinations in India for its freighter services, Sutch said there are no plans as of now.
"We don't have any immediate plan for a new route, but whenever we will see any opportunity in any Indian city, we will consider (it)," he added.
The airline, which also has passenger flights to India, expects to have cargo volume growth next year similar to that witnessed during January-September 2016.
Earlier, cargo volume growth has been around 4-5 per cent.
Emphasising that India is a "very significant market" for Cathay Pacific, Sutch said it saw a "tremendous" growth of 187 per cent in terms of tonnage from the Kolkata market alone in 2015.
Pharmaceutical is the main focus when it comes to cargo in the Indian market, he noted.
About the recent changes made by the Indian government to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) into the domestic aviation sector, Sutch said, "We welcome the changes."
He added: "It is a very positive for the Indian aviation sector. From Cathay Pacific point, India is a very significant market of our network."
Earlier this year, the government allowed foreign investors, barring overseas airlines, to own up to 100 per cent stake in Indian carriers, besides relaxing FDI norms in brownfield airports.
Cathay Pacific provides a range of air cargo solutions, including those related to animal, pharmaceutical, secure as well as dangerous goods, to major cities worldwide.
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