Blue Dart sets up air-city side Superhub in the city

Chennai, Apr 12 (UNI) Blue Dart, South Asia's largest air express, courier and logistics company, today inaugurated its new Integrated Superhub in the city.

The hub was located at the Old International terminal, Blue Dart Managing Director Malcolm Monteiro told newspersons after the launch.

It has airside as well as cityside access and was equipped with latest x-ray machines and cargo handling equipment for swift and efficient clearances and retrievals, ground-handling and loading into the aircraft.

He said Blue Dart Aviation, wich has an ACMI agreement with Blue Dart express for dedicated air services, has its headquarters and two of its fleet of five aircraft based in Chennai.

''Chennai has emerged as the preferred destination for IT and back-end operations of banks and other Multinationals. Setting up of manufacturing start ups over the last one decade, has paved way for manifold growth in package volumes'', he said.

Observing that South was a critical region for Blue Dart as it accounts for 35 per cent of overall revenue, the setting of an air-city side integrated hub gives the company a cutting edge in the express market for quick and seamless retrieval and dispatch of inbound and outbound loads, Mr Monteiro said.

Talking about future plans, he said Blue Dart would be investing Rs 25 crores in financial year 2006 to add 45 new facilities to the already existing 217 located in India. Of this, 14 would be in South India alone.

He said by the middle of this year, two more Boeing 757s would be added to the fleet, which would make Blue Dart the only player to operate a Boeing 757 in the domestic skies.

The induction of the two aircraft, would help handle 250 tonnes per night as against the current level of 166 tonnes.

UNI GV KVV 1455