GMR-led Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) announced Tuesday that UPS, a global leader in logistics, will route its latest freighter aircraft to India from Delhi Airport.

This is a significant development as with this routing, businesses in North India will gain faster access to markets in the Western countries.

UPS commenced its six weekly flights from Delhi with its Boeing 747-8F aircraft, the company’s largest freighter aircraft, which came from Bangkok. The company will operate its services with Boeing’s B747-400, B747-8 and B767 aircraft. Earlier, UPS was operating from Mumbai.

UPS will operate B747 aircraft on Delhi (IATA-DEL) and Cologne (IATA-CGN) route, which is UPS’s largest international hub, and Boeing 767 on Delhi (DEL)-Dubai (DXB)-Cologne (CGN) route.

Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO-DIAL, said: “Delhi has emerged as a cargo hub for the businesses in North India and neighboring countries. The service offered by UPS will give a boost to the cargo and logistics sector in the region. It will support importing businesses from Asia and enhance growth opportunities to markets in the West.”

Delhi Airport recently launched a Transshipment Excellence Centre, the first-of-its-kind facility created at any Indian airport for faster movement of transshipment cargo.

“The first landing of UPS’ largest aircraft, from our fleet of newly acquired Boeing 747–8, at IGIA today, is another contribution to UPS’s goal to make the global marketplace more accessible for global customers,” said Rachid Fergati, UPS Managing Director for the Indian subcontinent.

“We can now offer extended pick up time, later commercial clearance and shorter time in transit to capitalise on growth opportunities in these markets,” he said.

With three operational runways and nine freighter parking bays, Delhi Airport is the country’s largest and busiest airport handling an annual traffic of 69.8 mppa in 2018. It is India’s largest air cargo gateway.

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