The Hindu Business Line : Blue Dart map includes Hyderabad as 6th hub

Mr Gopa Kumar, Vice-President (South), Blue Dart Express Ltd, and Ms. Tulsi N. Mirchandaney, Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Projects, at a press conference in Hyderabad on Tuesday. — A. Roy Chowdhury

Hyderabad , May 4

BLUE Dart Express Ltd, a leader in the Indian express market with a 38-per cent market share, has made Hyderabad its sixth aviation hub after New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore.

The new hub will be connected to company's aviation network by the recently acquired Boeing 737 aircraft.

Post-acquisition, the total fleet of the company has gone up to four.

The new aircraft would add 14 route connections.

"This will increase our daily capacity to 180 tonnes a night from the present 120 tonnes a night," Mr Gopa Kumar, Vice-President (South), said.

Announcing this here at a press conference on Tuesday, he said Hyderabad hub would be operational from May 17.

The company runs 212 flights a week. "We are planning to acquire one more aircraft this year," Mr Niteen Gupte, Chief Operating Officer of Blue Dart Aviation Ltd, said.

The express company runs its flights in the nights. In a small scale, the company is outsourcing its flights for charters in the daytime for Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives.

"It (outsourcing for charters) doesn't constitute much of our flying time. Of the 5,000 hours of flying, we do about 100 hours for chartering," he said.

Blue Dart's aircraft recorded 93 per cent load factor.

Mr Gopa Kumar said the South contributed 30 per cent to company's total turnover. "South's importance is growing," he said.

"Four major credit card companies locating their headquarters in the region. Also, the region has strengths in information technology, pharmaceuticals and garments," he said.

"Ten per cent of business from the South comes from Andhra Pradesh. Seventy-one of 500 top global corporations and 63 top Indian firms have their presence in the State.

Also, Visakhapatnam port handles 14.1 per cent of total Indian port traffic," Mr Gopa Kumar said, elaborating on possible increase of business from the State.

The company recorded a PAT (profit after tax) of Rs 26.48 crore on a turnover of Rs 355.33 crore for the year ended March 31, 2004.

Ms Tulsi Nowlakha Mirchandaney, Senior Vice-President (Marketing and Projects), said the company did not want to compete in the international markets as there were good number of established players.

"We wanted to focus on the domestic and regional segments," she said.

To reach out the international destinations, the company tied up with DHL that offered its services in 220 countries.

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