Mumbai Airport's Manoj Singh to lead newly launched Mumbai Chapter of ACFI

Manoj Singh, senior vice president & head – cargo, Mumbai International Airport - Adani Airports, will lead the Mumbai Chapter of Air Cargo Forum India (ACFI) which was launched on December 1, 2022, in a function at Pharma Excellence Centre Auditorium, Export Cold Zone, Air Cargo Terminal, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

"Singh has spent over 3 decades within the airport & aviation sector. The ACFI governing board members are confident that he will add great value to the forum through his out-of-the-box ideas and customer-centric philosophy during the current term," reads the release.

ACFI is an association of various stakeholders of air cargo logistic supply chain trade and industry i.e. freight forwarders, airlines, airport operators, cargo terminal operators, customs house agents and express industry formed to support and promote the development of the air cargo logistics industry in India.

Singh commented, ''As the chairman of the Mumbai Chapter, I will continue to collaborate with each of our task force pillars within ACFI for efficiently carrying out work in each area with the requisite support from our ACFI president and the members of ACFI. My ambition is to integrate ACFI Mumbai Chapter with key stakeholders of the air cargo and supply chain community within Mumbai. Air freight logistics is a crucial means to move cargo and we are witnessing rapid transition in this field through evolving technology, regulations, processes and business dynamics.''

ACFI Mumbai Chapter Board
Chairman: Manoj Singh, senior vice president & head – cargo, Mumbai International Airport - Adani Airports

Vice Chairperson: Chaitaly Mehta, director, EKF Global Logistics

Members:

Harish Shetty, group advisor, Cargo Service Center

Vineet Malhotra, director, Kale Logistics Solutions

Aniruddha Daga, owner, Daga Connect

Mihir Bhadkamkar, director, ATC Global Logistics

Rajesh Menon, regional head of cargo - South Asia, Middle East and Africa, Cathay Pacific Airways

Ravi Kumar Tummalapalli, managing director, va-Q-tec

Rajiv Hariramani, director, air freight - Skyways Group

"The Mumbai committee, right from its inception will pursue all-important trade issues in the region related to process simplification, knowledge & research, policy advocacy, upskilling the people by conducting training, events and workshops etc. The core objective of the Mumbai Chapter will be to align itself with the ACFI head office and achieve the common goals of steering the growth of the air cargo sector along with the development of the Indian economy," reads the release.

Yashpal Sharma – ACFI president and managing director, Skyways Group, noted that Mumbai will bring the much-needed professionalism to ACFI and its representation would be much broader with the inclusion of India's financial centre. "To achieve the ten million tonnes of air cargo throughput by 2030 the industry has to grow 3 times and it will only happen with the collective collaboration of the industry stakeholders. India will also see a growth of transhipment air cargo to 2 million times in the next five years," he said.

Ramesh Mamidala, chief cargo development officer of Adani Airports spoke about ACFI's history of representations to the government on the behalf of air cargo stakeholders and noted that government push the industry to formulate the vision and in turn, the government now listens to the collective voice of the industry through ACFI. "We still remember that in the initial days of ACFI, we had very few answers in our hands about the real size and potential of the industry and how it will evolve or gain cargo throughput. The push from ministers and government had a positive impact on how we formulated our vision about the industry."