Air India Cargo
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| Founded | 1954 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceased operations | 2012 | ||||||
| Hubs | |||||||
| Secondary hubs | |||||||
| Fleet size |
6 | ||||||
| Destinations | 13 | ||||||
| Parent company | Air India Limited | ||||||
| Headquarters | Mumbai, India | ||||||
| Key people | Arvind Jadhav,CMD | ||||||
| Website | www.airindia.com | ||||||
Air India Cargo was a cargo airline, it was the freight carrying subsidiary of Air India, based in Mumbai. It operated freighter aircraft services off and on at different stages of its history, the latest being from 2006 to 2012. Although the company has stopped operating as an airline it continues to manage the belly cargo hold capacity of Air India's passenger fleet.
History
Air India Cargo was set up in 1954, and started its freighter operations with a Douglas DC-3 aircraft, giving Air India the distinction of being the first Asian airline to operate freighters.
Between the 1980s and 1990s it operated Boeing 747 and Douglas DC-8 freighter aircraft on various international routes through other companies.
In 2006 the airline relaunched freighter services following the merger of Indian Airlines and its domestic subsidiary Alliance Air with Air India; which led to the acquisition of a single Boeing 737-200C aircraft from Alliance's fleet, plus ten additional passenger versions of the aircraft, of five were converted to freighters. One of these was also painted in Indian Airlines' old livery for a brief period after conversion. All six aircraft were flying on Air India Cargo domestic routes.
Air India also converted four of its Airbus A310-300s into freighters, these were deployed on the Dammam-Frankfurt route. After ending international operations two were leased out to new cargo startup Aryan Cargo Express, while a third was sold to an African company.
In November 2007, Air India partnered with GATI, a leader and pioneer in express distribution and supply chain solutions for a dedicated freighter service using the 737s.
With rising competition from local cargo airlines as well as financial issues, Air India Cargo ended freighter aircraft operations in early 2012.
Destinations
Air India Cargo served the following cities with freighter aircraft until January 2012; it also had ground truck-transportation arrangements on select destinations.
- India
- Telangana
- Delhi
- Goa
- Gujarat
- Karnataka
- Kerala
- Maharashtra
- Manipur
- Tamil Nadu
- Uttar Pradesh
- West Bengal
International routes included Dammam and Frankfurt, some other routes were also operated until the 1990s.
Fleet
Air India Cargo operated the following aircraft at January 2012:[1]
| Aircraft | Total | Notes | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boeing 737-200(Adv)F | 5 | ||||||
| Boeing 737-200C(Adv)F | 1 | ||||||
| Total | 6 | ||||||