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Can Your Supplier Air-Freight From Its Own Town?
Yash KhatriFounder, SourcingFrom
- Updated
5 min read
Usually not. Most Indian export towns have no busy international cargo airport, so urgent goods and samples are trucked to a gateway, most often Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru or Chennai. Delhi and Mumbai carried 58.5% of India's international air freight in FY2025-26.
The Short Version
- Surat, Rajkot Hirasar, Indore, Visakhapatnam and Agartala airports moved no international freight in FY2025-26.
- Most north Indian craft towns fly from Delhi. Gujarat leans on Ahmedabad or Mumbai.
- Ask the supplier which city the goods or samples leave India from, and add the truck leg.
- For regular stock, ship on your own courier account or forwarder, not the supplier's.
- Forwarders use about 200 kg as a rough point where air and sea cost about the same.
Usually not. Most Indian export towns have no busy international cargo airport, so urgent goods and samples get trucked to a gateway first, most often Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru or Chennai. Delhi and Mumbai alone carried 58.5% of India's international air freight in FY2025-26, and five export towns' airports, Surat, Rajkot, Indore, Visakhapatnam and Agartala, handled none at all.
This matters the moment someone says "just fly it, the factory's next to an airport". Below is what the official airport figures show, and the airport I'd expect for the main export towns, taken from our own map of 57 clusters.
One caveat - the tonnages are official, but which airport a given supplier uses is our reading of those figures, so confirm it with the supplier or your forwarder.
1. Why Your Supplier Can't Just Use the Local Airport
Why not fly from the nearest airport? Because an airport can be open to international passengers and still be close to useless for export cargo. Freight needs scheduled cargo space, a customs-cleared cargo terminal and airlines selling that space, and all of those sit where the volume is.
India's volume sits in a handful of cities. By our calculation from the Airports Authority's own table, Delhi and Mumbai moved 58.5% of the country's international air freight in FY2025-26, and the next two, Bengaluru and Chennai, take most of what's left.
So for a supplier in a town with a quiet airport, "air freight" really means a truck to the gateway, export clearance there and then a flight. That's fine, as long as you plan for it.
2. Which Airport Your Goods Will Fly From
Here's the departure airport we'd expect for the main export towns on our map. The tonnage is official, the town's nearest airport in FY2025-26 from the AAI table (opens in a new tab). The last column is not official. It's our estimate, worked out from those cargo figures and the distance to the nearest busy gateway.
| Export town | Nearest airport, FY26 international freight (official) | Departure airport (our estimate) |
|---|---|---|
| Surat (diamonds, jewellery) | Surat, 0 t | Mumbai |
| Morbi, Rajkot (tiles, engineering) | Rajkot Hirasar, 0 t | Ahmedabad |
| Indore, Dewas (soya, pharma) | Indore, 0 t | Mumbai |
| Visakhapatnam, Bhimavaram (seafood) | Visakhapatnam, 0 t | Chennai or Hyderabad |
| Agartala (bamboo, cane) | Agartala, 0 t | Kolkata |
| Jaipur (handicrafts) | Jaipur, about 2,144 t | Delhi |
| Bhadohi, Mirzapur, Varanasi (carpets) | Varanasi, 999 t | Delhi |
| Srinagar (handicrafts) | Srinagar, about 198 t | Delhi |
| Ludhiana, Jalandhar | Amritsar, about 1,845 t | Delhi |
| Tiruppur, Coimbatore | Coimbatore, about 1,908 t | Chennai, Bengaluru or Kochi |
| Moradabad, Agra, Panipat, Noida | Delhi, about 739,779 t | Delhi |
| Ahmedabad | Ahmedabad, about 63,539 t | Ahmedabad |
Treat that last column as Indicative, an estimate from official airport figures and distance rather than a fact about any one supplier. Most north Indian craft towns land on Delhi and Gujarat leans on Ahmedabad or Mumbai. Tamil Nadu's textile belt has three possible hubs, and nothing public settles Tiruppur in particular, so ask.
Surat has one odd wrinkle. The customs list of connected sites includes an air cargo station at the Surat Diamond Bourse (CBIC / ICEGATE list, Feb 2024 (opens in a new tab)), yet Surat airport moved no international freight all year. So the paperwork may start in Surat while the goods still fly from Mumbai, and if you buy jewellery there it's worth a quick check with your forwarder.
3. What It Means for Samples
Samples usually travel by express courier rather than as air cargo, but the same geography applies because the parcel still has to reach a gateway with international flights. Before you count the days, ask your supplier one question: "Which city does it leave India from?" If the answer is a truck ride away, add that on.
Two more things catch buyers out, going by their own accounts on forums. First, when the supplier ships on its own courier account, the courier often ends up as the importer of record, which matters if you ever want duty back (r/ecommerce, 2026 (opens in a new tab)). Second, couriers sometimes classify goods wrongly, and one US distributor said the wrong tariffs "are starting to add up" (r/smallbusiness, 2025 (opens in a new tab)).
For a one-off sample that's fine, but for regular stock I'd use your own account or your own forwarder. Our freight forwarder guide covers when that's worth the bother.
4. When Air Is Worth It Over Sea
For small lots, more often than you'd think. Forwarders on a UK small-business forum use about 200 kg as the point where air and sea cost roughly the same on India shipments, and below that sea saves little and takes six to eight weeks (r/smallbusinessuk, 2024 (opens in a new tab)). Another forwarder points out that for small air shipments an express courier often beats a forwarder, because forwarders' minimum charges bite (r/logistics, 2025 (opens in a new tab)).
Those are rules of thumb from people doing the work, not published rates. Get both quotes for your own lot.
What air can't fix is the inland leg. If your supplier is in Bhadohi then the truck to Delhi is part of the air plan, and so is export clearance at Delhi. SourcingSync (opens in a new tab) can arrange the pickup, the export paperwork and the flight from the right gateway if you'd rather not run it all from abroad.
FAQ
Can I air-freight directly from Surat?
Surat airport moved no international freight in FY2025-26, so our estimate, from the official airport cargo figures, is that goods fly from Mumbai. Confirm it with your supplier or forwarder.
Which Indian airports handle the most export cargo?
Delhi and Mumbai, with 58.5% of international air freight in FY2025-26 between them, followed by Bengaluru and Chennai.
Will my samples from Jaipur fly from Jaipur?
Possibly, since Jaipur handles some international freight, but most Jaipur cargo probably routes through Delhi. Ask the supplier which city it leaves from.
Do I need a forwarder for air freight from India?
Not always. For small parcels a courier is often simpler, while for regular or heavier shipments your own forwarder gives you control of the paperwork.
Related: India's manufacturing clusters · Mundra or Nhava Sheva · Low-value imports
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Yash KhatriFounder, SourcingFrom
Yash Khatri founded SourcingFrom to give buyers outside India the full picture of sourcing from India: what the country makes well, where it is made, who makes it and how it ships. He reviews every guide on the site and holds each one to the same rule: say what we know, show how sure we are, and say plainly where the evidence runs out. He also runs SourcingSync, the hands-on service that does the sourcing work for buyers, and Kirnova, the data and intelligence company behind SourcingFrom Intelligence.
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