Ocean Oct 10, 2026 · 8 min read

Adani airports stop handling Russia-bound cargo

Adani’s Indian airports halt Russia cargo, leaving 150 tonnes stranded. Eight Indian airports run by Adani Group, including both Mumbai airports, have temporarily stopped handling Russia-related shipments, according to The Loadstar. About 150 tonnes of exports, mostly pharma, machinery and spares, were stuck over the past week. Adani has not said why. Our view: a private operator is enforcing US sanctions harder than India’s government does. Delhi, which Adani doesn’t run, still handles Aeroflot. Ships are no easier: carriers have stopped India–Novorossiysk bookings over drone attacks. We expect the curbs to last to year-end, and western India’s Russia air cargo to shift to Delhi or non-Russian airlines within six weeks.

Adani’s eight Indian airports stop handling Russia-linked cargo, and the government isn’t the one saying no

What happened

Eight Indian airports managed by Adani Group, including both Mumbai airports, have temporarily suspended handling Russia-related shipments, according to The Loadstar on 7 October. Some 150 tonnes of Indian exports for Russia were stranded over the past week. Most of it is pharmaceuticals, machinery and spare parts.
Adani has not explained the move. It has not responded to queries on the matter, according to Outlook India. One forwarder told The Loadstar: “Air freight to Russia through Adani airports is now at a standstill.” The same forwarder added: “We are unaware of the exact reason.”
This matters because of where it is happening. Mumbai is India’s second-busiest air cargo hub, according to The Loadstar. Delhi Airport, which Adani does not run, still handles Russia flights, including those of the national carrier Aeroflot.
Our view is simple. This is sanctions enforcement by an infrastructure owner, not by a government. India has not banned Russian cargo. A private company running some of the country’s busiest gateways has decided it won’t touch some of it. Forwarders should treat that as a lasting change, not a glitch.

It looks like the airline, not the cargo

The clearest account comes from Delmos Aviation, the Indian cargo representative for Aeroflot and Volga-Dnepr. Its head, Naveen Rao, says Mumbai airport officials linked the restrictions to US sanctions run by OFAC, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, according to Outlook India.
As of 5 October, processing for Aeroflot and Volga-Dnepr shipments had been halted for about two weeks and trucks had been sent back, Outlook India reported. About 2.5 tonnes sat in the airport warehouse. Another 12.5 tonnes was waiting to be carted in so Delmos could build a 15-tonne truckload. Demurrage, the storage charge for cargo left too long, was building, according to The Economic Times as cited by Outlook India. Rao has asked the Ministry of Civil Aviation to step in.
At Navi Mumbai, a Volga-Dnepr charter had its slot arrangements confirmed and then revoked, according to Outlook India. The Loadstar reports that the charter was rerouted to Delhi.
The two carriers involved are both on US lists. Volga-Dnepr is listed by OFAC as a blocked Russian entity, according to Lapaas Voice, citing the US Treasury’s OFAC designation record. Aeroflot is under a US Bureau of Industry and Security Temporary Denial Order, renewed in September 2026, which restricts certain dealings in US-controlled goods.
Delmos also says Russia-linked cargo still moves through Mumbai on Emirates, Turkish Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines, and asks why that is treated differently. That is the tell. The shipper, the consignee and the Indian logistics company may not be sanctioned at all, the cargo agents argue, according to Lapaas Voice. In our reading, what triggers a refusal is the airline named on the booking.
Lapaas Voice puts the legal point plainly. OFAC rules do not amount to “a blanket US prohibition on every shipment originating in or connected with Russia.” Whether a shipment is allowed can depend on the carrier, shipper, consignee, goods and other factors. Outlook India describes the dispute as “less about a declared government ban on Russian cargo” than about how the airport operator reads its own obligations.

Why a private operator would go further than the government

The timing has fuelled a theory. On 9 September, Adani Airport Holdings announced deals to raise about $1bn in primary equity, according to Outlook India. The investors are a consortium of Alpha Wave Global, Premji Invest, Temasek and BlackRock-managed funds. The deal values the airport business at about $18bn before the money comes in. After three tranches, the investors would own about 5.54%. Adani Enterprises stays in control.
People aware of the development told The Economic Times that the curbs followed the raise, according to Outlook India. No one has shown a causal link. In Lapaas Voice’s words, the timing “does not establish that the investment caused the policy change.”
We think the cause matters less than the pattern. Adani has done this before, on the water. In September 2025, Adani’s ports said they would refuse tankers sanctioned by US, EU and UK authorities. The group “will not accept sanctioned tankers at any of its 14 ports,” according to Kpler. That hit a big flow. Adani’s Mundra port has taken nearly 400,000 barrels a day of crude in recent years, more than half of it Russian, and handles close to 10% of India’s crude imports, Kpler said.
India kept buying Russian oil. Adani simply stopped letting sanctioned ships into its own berths. The airport move looks like the same policy, a year later, applied to aircraft.
The logic is easy to follow. A company with Western investors, Western lenders and global ambitions has more to lose from a US penalty than from a few hundred tonnes of Russia cargo. It doesn’t need a law to say no. It just needs to decide that the risk isn’t worth the revenue.

The sea route is closing too

Forwarders hoping to switch Russia cargo to ocean will not find much relief. Container carriers have stopped accepting bookings from India to Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk “over fears of escalating drone attacks on vessels,” according to The Loadstar. They are limiting their services to St Petersburg.
This side of the story is about war risk, not sanctions. MSC suspended Novorossiysk bookings after the 2,700 TEU MSC Ulsan III was hit by a drone on 25 August after leaving the port, according to Maritime Executive. TEU means twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard container measure. MSC said it was “not accepting bookings until conditions allow the resumption of regular weekly service.” Fesco and Kalyon halted all Black Sea sailings after the Fesco-operated Yanina was hit by two drones and sank, the same report said.
MSC and CMA CGM were among the top mainline carriers on India–Russia trades, alongside operators linked to NVOs, according to The Loadstar. An NVO, or NVOCC (non-vessel operating common carrier), sells space on ships it doesn’t own. Corten Shipping is one such operator named.
St Petersburg sits on the Baltic, on the far side of Europe from India. Cargo that used to go to the Black Sea now takes a much longer trip. Shippers should expect longer transits and higher landed costs.

What forwarders should do now

Mumbai has a second problem on top of this one. The move from the old Mumbai airport to Navi Mumbai International is pushing freighter operators away. Malta-based Challenge Group has paused its Mumbai operations, which it had flown twice weekly to Liège, Tel Aviv, the US and South America, according to The Loadstar. Lufthansa Cargo has also paused there. Challenge said the current setup “does not yet enable us to deliver our cargo services” with the reliability it needs. IATA, the airlines’ trade body, questioned Adani’s “forceful” approach to the transition.
So Russia-bound shippers in western India face a hub that is both refusing their carriers and losing other freighter capacity. Here is what we would do:

Route Aeroflot-bound cargo through Delhi. It still handles Russia flights. Budget for the Mumbai–Delhi truck leg and the extra days it adds.

Check the carrier, not just the goods. If the cargo, shipper and consignee are clean, a non-Russian airline through Mumbai may still work. Delmos says Emirates, Turkish Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines are carrying Russia-linked cargo there. Confirm with the airline and the ground handler before you truck anything to the airport.

Get it in writing. Adani has not publicly confirmed any restriction. Ask the cargo terminal for a written refusal before you accept demurrage. It will matter if you need to claim costs back.

Re-quote ocean via St Petersburg. Assume Novorossiysk is closed for now. Tell customers the transit will be longer.

Tell pharma clients early. Much of the stuck cargo is medicine, which often has temperature limits and expiry dates. Waiting it out is the most expensive option.

The wider lesson for anyone shipping to sanctioned markets: compliance risk now sits with whoever owns the terminal, not only with the regulator. A legal shipment can still be refused at the gate.

Our call

We expect the curbs to hold. Adani has no reason to reverse a decision it hasn’t even admitted to. Reversing it would mean taking on the exact US sanctions risk it appears to be avoiding, just as new outside investors are buying in. The cost of saying no falls on a small trade lane and a handful of Russian carriers. The cost of saying yes, if a regulator in Washington ever took an interest, could fall on the whole group.
The pressure to reverse is also weak. Delmos has asked the Ministry of Civil Aviation to step in. Neither Adani nor the ministry has publicly confirmed a ban, its scope or its legal basis, according to Lapaas Voice. Delhi gives the government an easy answer: the cargo can still fly, just from somewhere else.
Our prediction: Adani will not publish a written policy or resume handling Aeroflot and Volga-Dnepr cargo before the end of 2026, and the Ministry of Civil Aviation will not order it to by then. Within four to six weeks, most Russia-bound air cargo from western India will either be trucked to Delhi or booked on non-Russian carriers. And we expect India–Novorossiysk container bookings to stay shut through at least the first quarter of 2027.

Sources