Union Minister for Civil Aviation Shri Ram Mohan Naidu flagged off the scaled-up phase of India's transshipment cargo reform at Delhi International Airport Limited's (DIAL) Transshipment Excellence Centre at IGI Airport Terminal 2. The reform eliminates the mandatory re-screening requirement for transshipment cargo, significantly reducing turnaround time, handling costs, and congestion at cargo terminals.
The Proof of Concept exercise commenced on 20 June 2026 on the Chennai–Delhi–Frankfurt route using DIAL's facility with Air India operating the service end-to-end. The PoC successfully demonstrated a reduction in average end-to-end transit time from 60 hours to just 20 hours. Since its launch, the PoC transshipped 280 metric tons of cargo and increased aircraft capacity utilization from 75% to nearly 100%.
Based on this success, the network has been expanded to include four additional domestic origin stations: Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and Hyderabad, along with two new international destinations: London and Copenhagen. This expansion is projected to increase Air India's monthly cargo carriage on these lanes from 1,763 MT to 3,183 MT, representing an 80% increase.
The regulatory framework for this reform was notified through Addendum-II to AVSEC Circular No. 6/2024 by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) on 21 July 2025, which permits moving secured transshipment cargo through dedicated Transfer Cargo Security Hold Areas without re-screening, subject to prescribed security safeguards. The government's larger ambition is to position India as a global cargo transshipment hub by leveraging its strategic location between East and West, with plans to subsequently expand the framework to International-to-International and International-to-Domestic transshipment. Additional origin stations and international destinations are planned to be added in the coming months.