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India’s air cargo sector is navigating a delicate moment. Volumes remain strong, export composition is steadily upgrading, and global airlines are deepening their exposure to the Indian market. Yet financial stress across airlines—both passenger carriers dependent on belly cargo and dedicated freighter operators—is intensifying. Costs remain high, yields are under pressure, and recent passenger-side disruptions, most visibly the IndiGo crisis, exposed how fragile parts of the system still are.
And yet, despite these pressures, India’s air cargo machine did not break.
That resilience is easy to miss in headline numbers. What it reveals is a cargo ecosystem mature enough to absorb a significant passenger-side shock, even while grappling with deep structural weaknesses in sustainability.
The flight cancellations and delays at IndiGo, India’s largest airline and a major source of belly-hold cargo capacity, caused uneven but sharp disruption. Pune, a key hub for perishables and industrial cargo in western Maharashtra, was hit hardest. Strawberries, roses, exotic vegetables, automotive parts and vaccine consignments were stranded. Airport throughput briefly collapsed by about 55%, falling to roughly 90 tonnes a day from the usual 180–190 tonnes. For farmers and small logistics operators shipping uninsured perishables, losses ran into several lakh rupees within days.
Crucially, the disruption remained localized. There were no nationwide choke points. Freight forwarders rerouted shipments, integrators leaned on proprietary networks, and airports prioritised cargo clearance amid the passenger chaos. Industry-wide data shows no material decline in national cargo volumes during the period. The system bent—but did not fracture.
That ability to absorb a passenger shock without a systemic cargo breakdown marks a quiet but important step in the maturation of India’s logistics ecosystem.
The longer-term picture is more complex. India has never moved more freight by air. Airports Authority of India data shows roughly 1.2 million metric tonnes were handled between April and July 2025 alone. Overall freight volumes rose 4.8% year-on-year between April and September FY26, with domestic cargo up 5.9% and international cargo up 4.1%.
International routes remain the main growth engine. Volumes rose 18% year-on-year in the second half of FY24, and are expected to grow 11–13% in FY25. Major hubs have surged: Delhi’s international cargo rose 17.7%, Bengaluru’s 23.7% and Mumbai’s 14% between April 2024 and January 2025.
Yet growth has not translated into profitability. Blue Dart Aviation—the express cargo arm of DHL in India—is the rare outlier, posting a ₹71 crore profit, protected by long-term, premium, time-definite contracts. Most other operators, especially independent freighter airlines, remain under severe strain. Expanding belly capacity has crushed yields, fuel and leasing costs remain elevated, and airport charges inflated by royalty-linked revenue models have turned volume growth into a financial trap.
Passenger airlines have the ability to lower their cargo rates as compared to the cargo division of the same airlines because the losses are lessened through the ticket revenue. A cargo-only airline does not have such a cushion. Cargo-only flights are increasingly being removed from the routes which they used to follow as passenger fleets are gradually coming back to their normal strength.
Disruptions in global trade have changed the pattern of cargo shipments. Indian air freight to the U.S. is at its lowest level in the last nine years after the U.S. imposed sharp tariff hikes. The data of DGCA signify that the exports to the U.S. dropped from 7,152 tonnes in the first half of 2024 to 4,319 tonnes in the first half of the year 2025. The exports of handicrafts, engineering goods, gems, jewellery and garments have been significantly curtailed, with order volumes lowering as the landed prices drastically increase.
However, the industry has not fallen apart, but rather has transformed. The freight has been redirected to Asia, Europe, Africa and the Middle East which have released the North American market from its pressure. The airlines of Asia-Pacific have been able to register strong freight growth even when the trade routes have been changed, thus, confirming the role of air freight as a stabilizer in the volatile markets.
Below this bounce-back is the deep structural change. Indian exporters are choosing air freight more and more on the grounds of speed and reliability rather than cost. This is especially true of pharmaceuticals of which exports advanced 7.3% year-on-year to $12.76 billion between April and August 2025. The main reason behind this trend is that vaccines, injectables and biologics can only be shipped by air if transit times are to be cut from months to days.
Electronics is the second largest contributor. The electronics export value soared 41.9% year-on-year to $22.2 billion between April and September 2025, with the biggest contributor being smartphones. In order to fulfill the tight global launching schedules, huge volumes are flown through air freight as Apple and Samsung ramp up India-based manufacturing.
Moreover, gems and jewellery, automotive components, seafood, flowers and fruits are the examples of sectors which continue pushing air freight as a necessary part of their infrastructure, not as a luxury.
The global airline industry understands and accepts the challenge as an opportunity. The open partnerships and cargo-centric alliances are major factors that contribute to India's growing integration with the global trade corridors. The domestic situation is very promising as policymakers have set high goals: they expect cargo throughput to reach 10 million tonnes by 2030 and 21 million tonnes by 2047. By that time, the goals will be met through cargo-centered airports, faster processing, and efficiency reforms.
For now, India’s air cargo sector operates in a narrow corridor between pressure and progress. If high airport charges and uneven infrastructure persist, losses among freighter operators will deepen even as volumes rise. Growth without profitability is not sustainable.
Yet under stress, the system has shown resilience; amid disruption, adaptability; and in a fractured global trade environment, relevance. Whether India can convert those strengths into durable profitability will determine if today’s paradox becomes tomorrow’s advantage—or a lingering constraint.
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