Panel moots air cargo community system on PPP basis

Pitching for a revamp of the business processes involved in air cargo services, a government-constituted panel has suggested setting up an air cargo community system on public private partnership basis.

Besides, the committee has called for doing away with requirements that result in entry of same data in multiple systems.

Flagging issues related to air cargo, the committee said there is lack of efficiency, transparency and consistency across the supply chain in the current system which is resulting in "several pain areas for the different stakeholders".

While the domestic passenger growth has been more than 20 per cent for nearly two years, cargo segment has been lagging behind and the government has been making efforts to bolster it.
 

As per the report of the Committee on National Air Cargo Community System (ACS), the information exchange is many-to-many, resulting in complex/duplicate processes.

"Further, there is a lack of uniformity for message interface, a lack of data harmonisation, and a lack of end-to- end tracking," the panel, chaired by Senior Advisor at Civil Aviation Ministry Renu Singh Parmar, said.

In the national civil aviation policy, government has mentioned about developing an Air Cargo Community System (ACS).

Suggesting setting up of a special purpose vehicle for ACS, the committee said the same can be owned on public private partnership basis.

"The ACS will be owned by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) formed with 51 per cent stake with the Government. Ministry of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Finance may jointly hold this ownership.

"The remaining 49 per cent stakes may be distributed amongst airport operators... And other stakeholders like associations," the report said.

It has been suggested that ownership in the special purpose vehicle can be given in lieu of upfront investments by each party with an agreed cap on shareholding on individual entity.

According to the panel, business process re-engineering is required to streamline the interface amongst the stake holders so that they are not forced to enter the same data into multiple systems.