This year marked a transformative year for SpiceXpress as the airline speeded up its growth trajectory with expanded capacity, new global routes, and digital upgrades, says Amit Chadha, Head, SpiceXpress. The airlines enhanced operational efficiency through advanced cargo management, he adds.
CT Bureau
How would you sum up 2025 for SpiceXpress in terms of growth, volumes, and network expansion?
This year, 18 new aircraft were inducted, which enhanced the belly capacity and allowed SpiceXpress to serve vital domestic and regional routes. On the global front, Phuket, Kathmandu, Ho Chi Minh City, and Sharjah were added to strengthen the airline’s presence in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. These new links have opened trade corridors for Indian exporters and enabled quicker, more reliable cargo movements across sectors such as e-commerce, perishables, and pharma.
Overall, this year has been a year of consolidation and strategic growth. We expanded our reach but also improved our operational efficiency and service reliability, positioning SpiceXpress as one of fastest-growing cargo airlines in the region.
What were the lessons learnt in managing cargo operations in a competitive air
freight market?
One of the lessons has been the importance of agility and foresight in operations. The cargo market continues to evolve rapidly, with shifting demand patterns, changing regulatory landscape, and heightened competition. We learnt to anticipate market flow and respond quickly with the right capacity, network, and product mix — crucial to stay ahead. Another takeaway has been the value of digital transformation and data-driven decision-making. Leveraging real-time data for route optimisation, yield management, and tracking has helped us improve efficiency. The year reinforced collaboration — whether with airport operators, logistics partners, or technology providers. Building a connected ecosystem is essential to maintaining consistency in a fast-moving and competitive environment.
Were there any surprising cargo routes or commodities that outperformed expectations this year?
Our domestic network continued to form the backbone of our air cargo operations this year, particularly with sustained momentum in e-commerce, express, and pharma shipments. The expansion of our pax fleet added meaningful belly capacity on key domestic routes, enabling faster turnaround and higher frequency of uplift across major metros and tier II cities. Globally, we recorded encouraging growth following the addition of new destinations. Supported by demand for perishables, electronics, and general cargo, these routes gained traction. Among them, Ho Chi Minh City and Sharjah stood out as high-performing sectors, exceeding initial forecasts due to robust demand and improved connectivity.
Interestingly, we observed a notable uptick in pharma and engineering goods on regional routes, reflecting India’s growing role in global supply chains. Overall, domestic and global segments delivered healthy growth, but the global business clearly demonstrated its potential as a future growth driver for SpiceXpress.
What challenges did SpiceXpress face this year — be it capacity, regulatory, infrastructure, or pricing — and how did you address them?
The challenge revolved around optimising belly capacity across an expanding passenger network. With the induction of 18 new aircraft and growing demand in domestic and global markets, space management became critical. We addressed this by adopting a cargo allocation model — ensuring the right balance between routes, demand cycles, and commodity types to maximise efficiency. Infra constraints at major airports required attention, especially during peak cargo periods.
Through close coordination with airport partners, we improved ground handling processes, streamlined air cargo movements, and enhanced temperature-controlled facilities for shipments, such as pharmaceuticals. On the regulatory and pricing fronts, we maintained our competitive edge by leveraging data-driven pricing tools, strengthening partnerships with freight forwarders and e-commerce players, and maintained full regulatory compliance through proactive engagement with authorities.
What technology or process upgrades had the biggest impact this year?
What stood out among several initiatives was the rollout of our internal cargo operations platform — Kargo 360. Through Kargo 360, we achieved three major operational gains:
End-to-end visibility & decision support: Kargo 360 gives us real-time visibility across the cargo lifecycle — from booking and allocation of capacity in our pax aircraft, through to loading, tracking, and performance analytics. This visibility allowed our operations, network, and commercial teams to make better-informed decisions and respond quickly to shifts in demand or capacity.
Capacity management on bellies of pax aircraft: Because we operate with pax aircraft belly capacity, it was crucial to optimise how that space is allocated. Kargo 360 has enabled us to match load-demand across routes, better forecast belly-hold space utilisation, and ensure we are making use of every available kilogramme and cubic metre. This upgrade helped us boost yield and reduce idle capacity significantly.
Digitised stakeholder interface & data-driven workflows: We enhanced our frontline ops by automating manual processes, such as manifesting, booking confirmations, upload of AWB data, and performance dashboards, by providing forwarders, e-commerce customers, and internal stakeholders with an interface to engage with us. The improved data flow and analytics capability prove we are better at monitoring metrics, such as turnaround time, load factor per flight, on-time loading, and route profitability. Together, these upgrades have improved reliability, increased efficiency, and delivered a better experience for our customers. This year, Kargo 360 has become the digital backbone of our cargo operations.
How did the airline adjust its network or product offerings?
During the year, we saw e-commerce, pharma, and express cargo perform exceptionally well driven by distinct market dynamics. E-commerce continued to be the fastest-growing vertical, supported by rising consumer demand for faster delivery timelines. We responded by optimising our overnight network, increasing frequencies on high-demand city pairs, and enhancing linkage between tier II and III markets. The pharma segment saw robust growth, buoyed by India’s expanding role as a global pharma hub. To better serve this segment, we strengthened our temperature-controlled logistics capabilities, streamlined handling processes for sensitive cargo, and ensured compliance with global quality standards. In express and time-critical cargo space, we refined our offerings with better cut-off and uplift times, integrating real-time tracking through Kargo 360. The strategy has been to stay agile — matching the network capacity and product mixing closely with evolving market needs.
What are your priorities for 2026 in terms of fleet expansion or digital transformation?
We plan to add more pax aircraft to expand belly capacity and support new routes, particularly in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Our focus will be on enhancing frequency, improving linkage, and optimising space utilisation through smarter load planning. Digitally, we aim to scale Kargo 360 by integrating predictive analytics and AI-based capacity forecasting to make our ops data-driven and customer-centric. The goal is clear: To make SpiceXpress synonymous with speed, precision, and partnership — domestically and across key global corridors.
