News / India's air cargo community has high hopes as Noida Airport opening looms

The air cargo terminal at India’s new Noida International Airport looks set to be ready to take pressure off the congested New Delhi air cargo complex, when it opens at the end of next month.

Cargo operations are a key part of growth plans for the new airport, to be operated by Zurich Airport, and features an integrated cargo terminal with sophisticated multimodal infrastructure.

AISATS, a joint-venture between Tata-owned Air India and Singapore-based gateway service provider SATS, has 20-year concession rights for cargo handling.

The cargo terminal was originally estimated to cost some $80m. Developed over 87 acres, it will have an annual capacity of some 250,000 million tons of cargo in phase 1 operations, with further capacity to be added in tandem with demand growth.

As the cargo terminal nears completion, AISATS has positioned itself to offer dedicated freight capacity by forming a strategic partnership with Chennai-based cargo airline Afcom Holdings.

Having entered the air cargo market in 2022, Afcom operates a fleet of three 737 freighters, according to available information, and sees significant growth potential out of the northern India region, validated by an 11% year-on-year volume spike reported by Delhi Air Cargo Complex in fiscal year 2024-25, hitting 1m tons for the first time.

“Among Indian airports, Delhi processes the highest air cargo tonnage in terms of export and import,” Afcom said. “This strategic partnership provides an opportunity for Afcom to penetrate India’s largest air cargo market.”

South Korean electronics giant Samsung is widely thought to be a major beneficiary of the new cargo gateway, as Noida houses its largest manufacturing unit in India, producing a range of consumer electronics, including smartphones, wearables, tablets and laptops.

“Samsung could be the top customer for AISATS Noida,” one Delhi-based air cargo industry observer told The Loadstar. “Once the airline network expands, Noida could also draw in some volumes moving via Delhi.”

Mumbai-based Kale Logistics Solutions is in the final stages of creating advanced cargo community systems at Noida. Suneet Gupta, global head of cargo community systems, told The Loadstar: “With Delhi, Noida will create a twin-airport ecosystem that will ease capacity constraints, enhance multimodal connectivity and provide seamless trade facilitation for the entire region.”

However, amid the broadly positive sentiment, the impact of high US tariffs on imports from India has raised growth concerns for air cargo industry stakeholders. WorldACD’s recent report points to a slowdown in Indian cargo volumes for US routes, dampening pre-tariff estimates.

“While the demand potential remains comfortable, the timely commencement and ramp-up of [Noida] airport operations remains essential for materialising the potential,” said market rating agency Crisil in March.