The newly inaugurated Afghanistan-India air freight corridor has resumed flights following a 17-day delay, reports Customs Today. The corridor had originally opened on June 18, with the aim of providing 4x monthly cargo flights between Delhi International and Kabul but met with delays when a dedicated carrier could not be secured. Scheduled flights by national carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines (FG, Kabul) were cancelled, and the route was also hit by other procedural delays.

The corridor was negotiated after a meeting between India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in September 2016, with the aim of achieving USD10 billion in trade over the next five years. It's an important agreement for the two countries, allowing them to bypass Pakistan which imposes strict limitations on the transfer of cargo across its borders. Other flights are expected to be added to Kandahar, Herat, and Mazar i Sharif.

President Ghani highlighted the importance of export trade to provide opportunities to Afghanistan. "As long as we are not an exporter country, then poverty and instability will not be eliminated," he is quoted as saying in the Times of India. To that end, the Afghan government is providing a 17% subsidy for cargo flights to India.

The government has now secured the services of Kam Air (RQ, Kabul) which will use B737 equipment. Afghan traders have, however, highlighted that improvements need to be carried out at Kabul's Hamid Karzai airport to facilitate cargo transport, in particular for the storage of fresh fruit and vegetables.