India’s first perishable cargo-handling center in an airport recently began operations at Kempegowda International Airport.

The center is operated by Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt. Ltd. (AISATS). AISATS is a 50:50 joint venture between Air India Limited, and SATS Limited, a leading gateway services and food solutions provider in Asia.

The center began operations October 1.

Spread over 118,000 square feet, the center will have an handling capacity of 40,000 tons per year and deal with perishable commodities such as pharmaceutical products, fruits, vegetables, poultry, seafood, and flowers. It will have 17 dedicated cold rooms with temperatures ranging between -13 degrees F to 77 degrees F.

“It will house a drug controller lab, as well as a plant quarantine inspection and certification office. COOLPORT will also be supplemented by temperature-controlled queue lanes and cool trolleys,” a statement from AISATS said.

Designed as a one stop shop to facilitate the import and export processes of the air cargo industry, the integrated facility will house a drug controller lab as well as a plant quarantine inspection and certification office. It will be supplemented by a temperature controlled queue lanes for unitized shipments and cool trolleys to ensure integrity of the cool chain from AISATS COOLPORT to the aircraft and vice versa.

On the first day of trial operations, approximately 25 tons of temperature sensitive pharmaceutical shipments were accepted at AISATS COOLPORT for carriage on board Cathay Pacific – Dragonair, Malaysia Airlines , and Singapore Airlines. The shipments came from freight forwarders Expeditors International, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, and Kuehne + Nagel.

“The Indian economy is on a high trajectory of growth and requires upgraded infrastructure facilities in the logistics space to cater to the growing needs of the trade and the air cargo industry,” said Mike Chew, CEO of AISATS. “Keeping in view the significance of air cargo to the economic growth

of the country, we believe that this dedicated facility will play a vital role in supporting better trade facilitation, and will further boost the exports and imports of temperature sensitive products.”