India’s third busiest airport, the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIAB/BLR Airport) processed 180,745 kgs of pomegranates from April to August 2020, to emerge as the leading airport for pomegranate exports from the country.
BLR Airport also accounted for 99 per cent of the total pomegranate exports from Karnataka, according to the data available from the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) and the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics (DGCIS).
The fruit was exported to 12 international destinations by nine global freight carriers, viz. Air France, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Turkish Airlines.
The logistics infrastructure at the airport is complemented by Air India SATS and Menzies Aviation Bobba Bangalore. To retain their freshness, perishables are stored, cleared and moved to the aircraft on priority, with the required temperature controls in place, therefore reducing dwell time at terminals.
The cargo infrastructure at the airport has been built to ensure the rapid distribution of perishable cargo. BLR Airport has a dedicated cold zone – AISATS CoolPort – with the capacity to handle 40,000 million tonnes (MT) per annum and temperature zones ranging from -25 to +25 degrees centigrade under the same roof and Menzies Aviation Bobba Bangalore, with the capacity to handle 20,000 MT per annum.