Postal dept to buy four more aircraft

After inducting the newly transformed Indian Airlines freight aircraft for its North-East operations, state-run courier company India Post is planning four more aircraft by 2011 for servicing its other sectors.

"The deployment of aircraft will be done phasewise on the basis of the volume of our services. After the North-East, we will look at the metros and other important cities where we have major services," said MS Bali, chief general manager, India Post.

The services to the North-East, starting from August 29, will be carried out, with Kolkata as the regional hub, to destinations like Guwahati, Agartala and Imphal.

The Boeing 737-200 leased to the courier company is the first among the six Indian Airlines aircraft which have been transformed from passenger aircraft into freighters.

After the merger of Indian Airlines and Air-India which got a formal nod from the corporate affairs ministry today, the national carrier will have a dedicated cargo unit called Air India cargo, which will deploy the transformed freighter aircraft.

The aircraft has been leased out to India Post for one year. Indian has also provided dedicated cargo crew and groundhandling staff for the services. The aircraft will display the logos of the merged carrier and India Post when the commercial service is flagged off on August 29.

"We decided to go for a dedicated aircraft because our Northeastern operations were suffering in terms of on-time performance," said a senior official from India Post.

The official said using the aircraft would mean a lot of value addition to the North-East services and would see an increase in volumes.

Also, the dismal condition of other forms of transport in the region makes air cargo a viable option. Competing private carriers like Blue Dart and First Flight have dedicated cargo fleet but hardly any services to the North-East.