Air inida Cargo Types

Air India's Cargo operation flies everything; to just about anywhere.

Not very surprising, when you consider how far and wide Indians have settled. Vast populations have settled in the Gulf, the US, UK, Africa and the Far East. It is to enable them to maintain links with their friends and families back home. And to let the entrepreneurs conveniently go about their business, that Air India has fine tuned its cargo services to their needs.

An active member of IATA, Air India carries all types of cargo including dangerous goods (hazardous materials) and live animals, provided such shipments are tendered according to IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations and IATA Live Animals Regulations respectively.

So if you have something you'd like to fly down to or from India, but aren't sure if we will, here's the complete list of the airline's cargo operations.

Personal Effects
Air India entered the Guinness Book of Records for evacuating the largest number of civilians during the Gulf war in 1990. With them, logically came their bag and baggage in the form of unaccompanied baggage in the belly of our aircraft.

Foodstuff
To book unaccompanied baggage, please contact any of our offices. For facilitating you in Customs clearance for your unaccompanied baggage at Indian airports, you or your representative should approach Indian Customs at the airport through our office with the following:
a) Copy of Airway bill
b) Passenger's passport
c) Baggage Declaration Form (BDF), duly completed

Sentimental Shipments
We understand how traumatic it is to lose a dear one. That's why we make sure the mortal remains of the deceased are always carried with utmost care and concern.
Besides passport of the deceased, the following documents are required for carriage of sentimental cargo :
Death Certificate from a competent medical authority,
Embalming and Packaging Certificate, Certificate issued by the Ambassador or his representative (Nationality of the deceased) with the deceased's full name, age at the time of death, place of death and photocopy of passport details.
Photocopy of cancelled passport.
It is necessary that the above documents are made in English, otherwise the same should be translated in English.

Postal Mail
Air India is undoubtedly the major carrier of postal mail out of India. We have also successfully bagged postal contracts from various Foreign Postal Administrations for uplift of Postal mail from their countries. For any enquiries, you may contact our local offices in the countries concerned or mail us.

Odd-Sized Cargo
Do you have any odd sized cargo or heavy pieces to carry?
Don't worry. Like we handle valuables and livestock, we also possess expertise in logistics to carry heavy and odd-sized.

Dangerous Goods
India being an industrial and nuclear power, we regularly carry Dangerous Goods such as flammable, corrosive, poisonous and radioactive substances. Our Cargo staff is qualified under Dangerous Goods Regulations, to handle such consignments.

Valuables
In order to ensure security of your valuables, we have provided a container with a security locker, on flight. In fact, the entire operation of loading and unloading is carried out under the vigilant eyes of our Security personnel.

India's largest foreign exchange earner is gems and jewellery, for which Air India gets its due share. White and yellow metals are our frequent flyers and a woman's best friend, diamonds, are our regular companions. Our carriage of valuables is not only restricted to gems and jewellery but also transportation of exquisite museum artifacts and paintings.

Among other valuables, we once had the privilege of carrying exquisite paintings, the Padshahnama from Queen Elizabeth's Windsor Castle collections, dating back to the 17th Century Mughal period.

But we never forget that your life is more precious than all the riches of the world. And, at all times, we adhere to the strictest security for transportation of cargo on our flights. Either we ensure that the cargo is retained in our warehouse for 24 hours before loading on the flight, or the cargo is physically checked or x-rayed.

Livestock
Over the years, we have acquired considerable expertise in carriage of livestock such as elephants, tigers, leopards, horses, cattle and pets. Recently Air India transported two plane loads of high breed horses from Europe to India.

Tips for Unaccompanied Baggage
To book unaccompanied baggage, please contact any of our offices. For facilitating you in Customs clearance for your unaccompanied baggage at Indian airports, you or your representative should approach Indian Customs at the airport through our office with the following:
A) Copy of Airway bill
B) Passenger's passport
C) Baggage Declaration Form (BDF), duly completed

Mishandled Baggage
Any loss or damage to baggage must be reported immediately on arrival.
All mishandled baggage is traced through the worldwide computerized tracer system.
Passengers can check the status of their missing bag on this site

Couriers
Courier traffic is a rapidly growing market. Air India has been in the courier business transporting small packages and documents between destinations for years. As we now allow drop-off facility en-route, the on-board courier can carry courier loads to more than one destination, considerably saving on cost and time.

Air india Cargo Operations

Air India's modern fleet of Boeing and Airbus aircraft carries just about everything. From emeralds to elephants, pins to pigments, shrimps to super computers.

That's why when you think of trading with India, or from India, Air India is your logical choice. An option which lakhs of corporates and international enterprises have made. We have the infrastructure and the network to ensure smooth transportation and delivery of cargo, worldwide. Air India's cargo operations give you a capacity advantage, combined with a 13-city network in India alone. So you can arrange for hassle-free and direct Customs clearance both for your Export and Import cargo. In India, we fly to Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Goa, Kochi, Kozhikode and Lucknow.

Internationally, Air India has tied up with various foreign airlines and trucking companies. This enables us to carry your cargo between Helsinki to Sydney.... or between any two points on the globe that you can think of.

To support our Cargo operations, we have a highly skilled and experienced team of professionals backed by our Training Division of international repute to constantly upgrade skills of our personnel.

At our warehouse in Mumbai, we have developed an indigenous system of inventory management for cargo handling of import/export functions. This takes care of the entire management of cargo, supports Electronic Data Interface (EDI) messages with Indian Customs and replaces to a great extent existing paper correspondence between Customs, Airlines, and the custodians. This also replaces manual handling and binning of cargo at the warehouse in Mumbai by Air India in our role as custodian and helps to identify large number of pieces for one Air Waybill with different weights and commodities binned in separate locations, track and identify arrival of part shipments under the same Air Waybills on different flights and maintain information on House Goods for a consol Air Waybill at the House Bill level.

Air india Check In options

AIR INDIA (IC) offers various options of check-in besides the counter check-in at the airport. You may now avoid airport queues with our real time check-in options. Select preferred seat & print your Boarding Card with our Web and Kiosk check-in options. Or you may check-in at our select cities in the booking office or on telephone.

The various check-in options are:
Tele Check-In
If you have a confirmed seat and plan to travel with hand baggage only on a domestic flight, you can Tele check-in for the flights operating on the same day or next day and report at the Tele check-in counter at least thirty minutes prior to the flight departure. (Only for Executive Class & FFP Members).

This facility is available in the six metros - Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore & Hyderabad. Passengers can contact either our designated tele check-in numbers or call centre number. We are available on 24x7 basis across India on both Toll Free and paid numbers. Users of service providers such as MTNL/BSNL and Reliance could us on Toll Free number 1800-180-1407. You may also contact us on short code number 1407 while in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Should you be in any othe city, you may contact us on 1407 by pre-fixing the STD code of any these cities.


I-Check-In (Web Check-In)
AIR INDIA (IC) has introduced I-check-in facility (web based check-in facility) whereby a passenger holding E-ticket, Net ticket, Dial-a-ticket or bid-n-fly ticket can check-in on AIR INDIA (IC) website and make selection of his seat on line and print boarding pass in the convenience of his office, residence etc. This facilitates you to report directly for the security check without reporting at check-in counters unless you have baggage to deposit with the airline, for which you are requested to report one hour prior to departure to deposit the baggage. This facility is available for purely domestic flights only for both Economy & Executive Class passengers. Return & onward check-in is also permitted for same & next day departure.


Self Check-In Kiosks

Self Service check-in Kiosks have been installed at select locations / airports to enable you to check-in yourself & obtain boarding pass from the Kiosk machine without interface with check-in staff. This facility is available for purely domestic flights. This facility is available up to thirty minutes before departure time. Through this facility you can select seat of your choice too.


City Check-In

Now you can check-in at the AIR INDIA (IC) city booking office for not just the same day flights but also for the next day.
Only passengers holding confirmed reservations on the flight ex. that station qualify for the same. This facility is available for passengers traveling with only hand baggage. City check-in is permitted up to two hrs. before the scheduled departure time & you should report at the airport at least thirty minutes prior to departure.
This facility is available in the six metros - Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Hyderabad & Bangalore for domestic flights only.


Return Check-In
Now you can return check-in if your flight is on the same day or the next. Collect your return boarding card from the originating station and report to the airport just 30 minutes before departure if you're travelling with hand baggage only. This facility is available for domestic flights only.


Through Check-In
You may through check-in from AIR INDIA (IC) to AIR INDIA (IC) domestic & international flights. Similarly this facility is available to you if you are travelling on AIR INDIA (IC) domestic and connecting on to AIR INDIA (AI) (or select other airlines) international flight. In other words you can through check-in along with your baggage up to New York, if you are travelling Kolkata / Delhi / New York. This facility is available on the reverse direction too. Special transfer desks have been established in the arrival halls of major metro airports, where you would be facilitated and assistance provided to connect you on to your next flight. Please ask our check-in counter staff for through check-in.