Blog

The enquiry for a single 32 tons by Air to Tashkent had come. Thanks to the recently concluded WCA (one of our network) conference in Singapore in Feb we had a very fruitful meeting with the charter company thereon, resulted in the procurement of very competitive price. The prospect of a charter flight was soon to become a reality which was both exciting and little unnerving all at the same time.

The time had now come to set the stage for handling the shipment, compromising of 400 cartons and 40 skids. The cargo was scheduled to be picked up on the 2nd Mar for connecting the charter on the 6th Mar at Mumbai.

However, the excitement was short-lived for the following two force majeure factors –

• The runway at the St Petersburg Pulkovo Int’l Airport was rendered inaccessible for about 3 days, after a Boeing 767 skidded off while landing on the 2nd Mar.
• Pakistan closed its airspace in the aftermath of the Balakot strike by the Indian Army a resulting in detour over Oman and cost escalation by about a whopping 25%

The cargo was picked from multiple points on the 2nd Mar but once the skids were delivered at the airport , authorities rejected them citing improper packaging. Well, the entire lot had to be repacked overnight before customs clearance. Finally, the handover of the cargo occurred on the night of 6th at 23:00 hrs against a Letter of Indemnity from the shipper.

The wait for the departure of the flight ex Mumbai was agonizing and to our huge relief the charter finally took off at 02:44 hrs on the 10th Mar from Mumbai , arriving Tashkent on the same day , without further hiccups. The cargo was delivered to the consignee successfully too. Our overseas agent expressed their gratitude and congratulated the AIR team here in Mumbai for the job done well!

Yes, we are very happy too, but yearning for such future opportunities eager to raise the bar, cheers !