Planned new Indian cargo carrier Quikjet is nearing the final stages of launch preparations and hopes to start flying around the end of next month.
CEO Natesan Ramesh says from Bangalore, where the new airline is to be based, that the carrier hopes to launch around the end of June with the first of three Boeing 737-300 freighters that it will be leasing.
“We expect to get delivery of the first aircraft by mid-June and hopefully within a two-week timeframe we can complete all the formalities in India” to allow for a launch, he says.
Ramesh will not reveal from where the aircraft are being leased, saying only that it is “a major lessor”. He says the first aircraft will be joined in July by a second 737-300F, followed by the third “a couple of months after that”.
Quikjet secured scheduled airline status in January and Ramesh says this means the carrier must be operating five aircraft by the middle of next year.
“We are scouring the market for suitable 757 or 767 aircraft,” he says.
“We always wanted that. We only moved to the 737 because of the tight aircraft [leasing] market.”
Ramesh says Quikjet will base its first aircraft at Chennai and it will serve other major Indian cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. The second aircraft will be based in Bangalore, where a new airport opened at the weekend.
He says the carrier will operate express freight services during overnight hours and carry general cargo during the day. It will initially operate domestic services but plans call for an expansion into the international market.
“Our focus is not to go global or long-haul,” he says. “We plan to do regional, up to 7hr or 8hr” from India.
India currently only has one main dedicated freight airline, Blue Dart Aviation, which operates primarily on behalf of DHL-owned Blue Dart Express.
Several other new dedicated cargo airlines are in the planning stages in India, however, while some of the country’s existing passenger carriers are looking at adding freighters.
Quikjet is being established by Singapore-based company Cardinal Aviation and Indian logistics group AFL, which has a partnership with package delivery giant UPS. Ramesh says major financial investors include Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services, Infrastructure Development Finance Co and Tata Capital.
Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: FlightGlobal.com
