In India’s aviation sector, cargo functionality has at all times been seen as an untapped useful resource with out sufficient devoted cargo plane and operators. However, all that’s slowly but certainly altering because the business is present process main adjustments whereas nonetheless remaining on a snug progress trajectory.

The previous couple of years have seen Indian airways establishing new cargo divisions whereas a few new cargo-only operators enter the market as properly. In this text, let’s take a more in-depth take a look at all cargo airways working within the South Asian nation one after the other.

Blue Dart Aviation

Starting with the oldest lively Indian cargo-only airline, Blue Dart Aviation was based in 1994. The airline is a subsidiary of an Indian logistics firm referred to as Blue Dart Express and is especially owned by the German courier firm Deutsche Post. Blue Dart operated Boeing 737-200 freighter airframes in its early days however later began including a number of Boeing 757-200 freighters to its fleet.

According to information from planespotters.internet, Blue Dart’s present fleet consists of six 757-200 freighters and two 737-200 airframes listed as parked. The 737s have been operated by the airline for DHL Aviation, whereas the 757s are used for home freight transport.

Blue Dart Aviation has hubs at Chennai International Airport (MAA), Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (HYD) in Hyderabad, and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport (CCU) in Kolkata. In addition, the airline ferries cargo to 5 different Indian cities: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, and Guwahati.

Blue Dart just lately introduced plans so as to add two 737-800 freighter plane to its fleet as a consequence of a rising demand for air cargo. The airline desires to stay the highest home freight airline within the nation and sustain with demand. The new airframes will value round $50 million and be partly funded by a $30 million mortgage from DHL’s logistics division. Parent firm Blue Dart Express will present the remaining funds.

QuikJet Airlines

Originally based in 2007, QuikJet Airlines began life as a cargo service with important monetary backing from Switzerland’s ASL Aviation. After years of turbulence, the airline relaunched itself earlier this yr and introduced plans to fly cargo plane for Amazon Air. Back in August 2022, Simple Flying broke the news about QuikJet Airlines making a grand return to Indian skies and flying for Amazon Air.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

QuikJet now operates two Boeing 737-800 freighters registered as VT-AAZ and VT-BAZ. Both planes are leased to Amazon Air and function common flights ferrying freight throughout the nation. AAZ has been flying underneath the brand new registration since December 4th, 2022, earlier than being joined by BAZ on January eighth, 2023.

Data from flightradar24 reveals that VT-AAZ has been flying the DEL-BOM-DEL leg as soon as every single day since April fifteenth, 2023, whereas VT-BAZ’s every day schedule includes flying DEL-BLR-HYD-DEL because the similar date.

Pradhaan Air Express

Pradhaan Air is India’s latest all-cargo airline that began operations in early October final yr. The service is a three way partnership based in 2021 between Kenya’s Astral Aviation and UAE’s Vaayu Group. It at the moment operates an Airbus A320 P2F plane registered as VT-PNS. The plane is the primary of its form on the earth and aptly named “Pehalwan” (wrestler or warrior in Hindi) by the airline.

Unlike the airways talked about above, Pradhaan Air Express flies makes use of its Airbus plane to maneuver cargo each domestically and internationally. The airline’s first industrial flight was on October tenth, 2022, from Delhi (DEL) to Hanoi (HAN). Since then, the airline has delivered cargo to extra worldwide locations, resembling Yangon (RGN), Ras Al Khaimah (RKT), Dubai World Central (DWC), Adana (ADA), and Sharjah (SHJ). While most of those flights have been operated sporadically and on a constitution foundation, VT-PNS flies the DEL-HAN-DEL route very often.

Pradhaan Air could also be younger, however the airline has large plans to make the most of the shortage of cargo capability in Indian aviation by quickly increasing its fleet. Speaking on the Air Cargo Conclave, Pradhaan Air’s CEO Mr Vipul Balla instructed CNBC about his future fleet plans. He stated the airline will add three extra narrowbodies (two of those shall be Airbus A321 freighters) by 2024 and 4 widebody Airbus A330 freighters starting in 2025.

SpiceXpress

SpiceXpress was SpiceJet’s cargo arm with a fleet of devoted freighter plane. As reported by Simple Flying, SpiceJet just lately separated its cargo arm SpiceXpress right into a separate entity as a debt restructuring measure. Therefore, particulars are nonetheless scarce on the airline’s future, however earlier than the operational change, the service had 5 freighter plane in its fleet: three Boeing 737-700Fs (VT-SFB, -SFD, and -SFE) and two 737-800Fs (VT-SFF & -SFG). However, the 2 -800F airframes haven’t taken to the skies for some time now and might not be part of the fleet anymore.

Photo: Koji Yokoyama | Shutterstock

All three -700Fs are lively, flying cargo to worldwide and home locations. SpiceXpress affords a wide range of pallets accessible for these plane, permitting for the transport of various varieties of products, together with stay animals.

IndiGo CarGo

India’s largest passenger airline just lately arrange its personal cargo division by shopping for 4 Airbus A321s and changing them to freighters. IndiGo CarGo took supply of its first Airbus A321 P2F plane in late September final yr, whereas one other entered operations simply after the brand new yr.

Photo: Savvapanf Photo/Shutterstock

Both airframes, registered as VT-IKW and VT-IKX, are at the moment busy flying cargo nationwide and past. Some frequent locations embody Sharjah, Ras Al Khaimah, Yangon, and Mumbai. The transformed plane can carry as much as 27 tonnes of cargo, nearly double that of an A321 configured for passengers. IndiGo plans to fly on extra routes with the incoming planes and soak up a major share of the cargo market.

Space for extra?

India’s cargo capability could have seen a dramatic enhance due to all these carriers including extra plane, however there’s nonetheless a variety of potential. For instance, international carriers nonetheless dominate cargo transport over lengthy distances to the US and Europe. Air India and Vistara are the one Indian carriers able to competing on this area however are far too poorly geared up as they’ll solely carry items within the plane stomach throughout passenger flights.

Much work is required to deliver the Indian air cargo business on top of things with the ever-growing demand, however fortunately, it seems to be like steps are being taken in the precise course.