Minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha in a reply to a question in the Lok Sabha said that air freight handled at Indian airports has grown by over 20 times from 0.08 million metric tonnes (MMT) in 1972-73 to 2.5 MMT in 2014-15.

As per the airports authority of India (AAI) data, the compound annual growth rate of air freight was 8.8 percent during 2013-14 to 2016-17.

In terms of million tonne-kilometres, the World Bank data also shows that air freight transported by India went up from 96.3 million tonne-kilometres in 1970 to 1,833.8 million tonne-kilometres in 2015.

In addition to this, the National Civil Aviation policy, 2016 also envisages growth of cargo volumes to 10 million tonnes by 2027.

Notably, the ministry had set up a committee on air cargo community system (ACCS) comprising stakeholders like customs authorities, and it was decided to grant approval to AAI for appointment of consultant to prepare a detailed project report for the development of a uniform and integrated web-based ACCS in the country, based on the above committee's recommendations.