Aryan Cargo plans foreign connections

Aryan Cargo Express, a dedicated cargo airline, will begin international operations from the first quarter of 2010. Initially, the company would operate within Asia and Europe with four Airbus 310-300F aircraft before moving on to using Airbus 330-200F planes. Aryan will treat the Saarc countries (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Afghanistan) as one market, providing connectivity within the bloc with Southeast Asia, China, West Asia, the CIS and European countries in the first phase.
Right now, GR Gopinath’s Deccan 360 is the only other dedicated Indian cargo airline in an industry dominated by multinational companies such as Blue Dart and DHL. As India recovers from an economic slowdown, domestic air freight has been growing in double digits year-on-year since May, compared with a contraction between October last year and March, according to data released by the Airports Authority of India (AAI).

Overseas freight has also started growing marginally since August. AAI expects local cargo movement to grow by 5% this fiscal and overseas cargo by 2%. Although the civil aviation ministry has granted licences to a clutch of firms to ferry air cargo since 2007, none have started services as an unprecedented global financial crisis and recession in developed markets dampened demand. The only exception was Deccan 360, which began operations earlier this year.