India Launches Transshipment Cargo Operations at Delhi's IGI Airport

Union Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu has flagged off a scaled-up phase of India's transshipment cargo reform at Delhi International Airport's Transshipment Excellence Centre, Terminal 2, on 19th August, 2026. This reform is aimed at cutting down turnaround time and handling costs for cargo moving through India, positioning the country as a stronger player in global air freight.

Transshipment Reform to 2 New International & 4 New Domestic Destinations

The reform began as a trial run on the Chennai-Delhi-Frankfurt route back in June 2026, operated end-to-end by Air India. Since launch, this pilot has already moved 280 metric tonnes of cargo, with aircraft capacity usage jumping from 75% to nearly full capacity. Building on this success, the network has now been expanded to include four more domestic origin points — Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Hyderabad — along with two new international destinations, London and Copenhagen. This expansion is expected to boost Air India's monthly cargo volume on these routes from 1,763 MT to 3,183 MT, nearly an 80% jump.

Chennai-Delhi-Frankfurt Route

This route served as the proof-of-concept for the entire reform. By removing the earlier requirement of re-screening cargo at each transfer point, authorities managed to reduce the average end-to-end transit time from 60 hours down to just 20 hours, a dramatic improvement that convinced the government to scale the model to more routes and destinations.

Security Framework and Regulatory Changes

This reform became possible after the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) revised its rules through Addendum-II to AVSEC Circular No. 6/2024, issued in July 2025. Under this updated framework, secured transshipment cargo can now move through dedicated Transfer Cargo Security Hold Areas without needing to be re-screened, as long as it meets the required security safeguards. This change removed a major operational bottleneck that had previously slowed down cargo movement at Indian airports.

Looking ahead, the government plans to bring more domestic origin stations and international destinations under this framework in the coming months, while also eventually extending the model to cover international-to-international and international-to-domestic transshipment, further strengthening India's ambition to become a global cargo transit hub.