Delhi Indira Ghandi International Airport has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol to develop an airfreight trade lane.

The MoU will see both airports collaborate on and promote airfreight between them. The collaboration includes business promotion, product development, knowledge sharing, training, performance benchmarking and regulatory agency cooperation. Delhi International Airport chief executive officer, Prabhakara Rao, says: “We aim to make Indian trade much more competitive in the global market.” He adds it wants to bring its operations up to global standards.

Schiphol senior vice president cargo, Enno Osinga, tells Air Cargo Week Amsterdam can be a gateway for Indian goods destined for Europe, as well as the US, Africa and Latin America. “We have been focusing on India for the last five years. Our first focus was on the Mumbai area and the logical next step is Delhi, which has a large pharma production market. Delhi is the next step rather than the beginning.”