NE BUSINESS BUREAU
GURUGRAM, MAY 14
SpiceJet on Thursday announced that it has carried four kilograms of diamonds and other valuable cargo from Mumbai in Maharashtra to Surat in Gujarat. The air cargo operator is flying 52 cargo flights on Thursday using its freighter and passenger planes in domestic and international routes, a company spokesman said.
SpiceJet has operated close to 1,126 cargo flights since the lockdown began around 7,500 tonnes of cargo this is more than double of all domestic airlines combined. Of the 1,126 cargo flights that SpiceJet operated, 397 were international cargo flights.
SpiceJet has also operated special cargo flights to and from Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok, Colombo, Dubai, Dhaka, Kabul, Myanmar, Sharjah, Male, Kuala Lumpur, Guangzhou, Bahrain, Cambodia, Bahrain, Baghdad, Philippines, Ukraine and a host of other places carrying vital supplies.
SpiceJet operated the country’s first cargo-on-seat flight on April 7 carrying vital supplies in passenger cabin & belly space. Since then, the airline has been regularly deploying its B737 and Q400 passenger aircraft to carry cargo in the passenger cabin.
SpiceXpress, SpiceJet’s dedicated cargo arm, has been regularly transporting surgical supplies, sanitizers, face masks, coronavirus rapid test kits, IR thermometers, etc. and providing doorstep deliveries of essential supplies, medicines, and medical equipment to various cities in India. The airline has helped Indian farmers maintain continuity of their supply chains by operating special cargo flights to take farm produce, fresh fruits and vegetables to various domestic and international destinations.
On March 29, SpiceJet operated a special flight between Delhi and Jodhpur to facilitate transportation of 136 Indian passengers evacuated from COVID-19 hit Iran to a Government quarantine facility in the city.
SpiceJet operated a special charter flight on March 27 from Delhi to Coimbatore on Government’s request and transported a Hazmat suit that is helping local authorities replicate and start local manufacturing.
Under ‘Marine KrishiUdaan’, SpiceJet had launched dedicated freighter flights on February 25 this year to ferry shrimp. The airline has transported 950 tons of shrimp during the lockdown phase till May 8, 2020, to help India’s Shrimp farmers. Between February 25 and May 8, SpiceJet has transported close to 1550 tons of shrimp. The major markets served by the airline under the program include — Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Surat, and Vishakhapatnam. Shrimp farmers used to face a lot of problems in undertaking timely transportation of seeds in the absence of dedicated freighter flights thereby leading to heavy losses.
