Blue Dart starts flight, acquires land

Logistic carrier Blue Dart express which started the state's first cargo flight from Ahmedabad on Tuesday, has acquired 6,000 sq feet land for expansion of its warehouse at the airport. It is also pumping Rs 4.5 crore for further expansion in the region.

Malcolm Monteiro, managing director, Blue Dart Express told Business Standard, "We have invested Rs 4.5 crore in Gujarat in the last two years and we are following it up with another Rs 4.5 crore in the next 12 months."

He was in the city for the launch of its operations in Gujarat and Ahmedabad as the seventh aviation hub of Blue Dart. The investment, he said, is apart from the company's investment in the new aircraft that is operational in the state now.

The expansion includes expand its facilities at Vadodara and Indore, which comes under the company's West II region, getting new X-ray machines and expansion of the warehouse. The new warehouse will have a storage capacity of about 300 tonne.

Currently, Blue Dart which has 39 per cent market share in the cargo market, handled around 20,000 tonne per annum, both inward and outbound, which was about 3.5 mn shipment in the state.

With operation of its B 737, which has a capacity of 14.5 tonne capacity, Blue Dart expects to increase cargo carriage by 4,000 tonne annually.

The flight will operate five days a week and will connect to its six other aviation destinations "� Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. It may also increase its operations, he said.

"These seven destination handles around 90 per cent of the business movement," Malcolm added.

He said Gujarat contributes about five per cent of the cargo business and Blue Dart is looking at cities which contributes around 1-2 per cent of business.

The express industry is growing between 17-20 per cent and the company also expects growth of 25 per cent in revenue in Gujarat, he added.

Blue Dart recently inducted two B 757 aircrafts, with a capacity of 28 tonne, in its express fleet of five B 737s.