SpiceJet would be the first scheduled airline to start dedicated air cargo services in India.
The company believes that there was an enormous untouched market for air cargo services in India.
The company expects 60% growth of air cargo traffic over the next five years.
The fourth largest Indian airline SpiceJet has begun its first dedicated air cargo service under the SpiceXpress brand on 18th of September.
SpiceJet would be the first scheduled airline to start dedicated air cargo services in India. The company has inducted a Boeing 737-700 plane as the first freighter aircraft.
The company intends to progressively increase its cargo operations from the existing 500 tonnes a day to 900 tonnes per day.
According to SpiceJet’s chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh, this is an extension of its ‘belly cargo’ service to a ‘dedicated freighter’ with Boeing 737 aircraft.
The company believes that there was an enormous untouched market for air cargo services in India.
In a statement, SpiceJet’s chairman said, “freighter aircraft will be acquired on pure operating leases and haven’t incurred any major capital expenditure, while the ground operations will be either self-handled by the existing SpiceJet ground Infrastructure or shall be outsourced till we develop a certain scale of operations.”
The company anticipates 60% growth of air cargo traffic over the next five years.
SpiceJet is known as a low-cost airline, and it is the fourth largest airline in India by number of domestic passengers carried, with a market share of 13.3% as of October 2017.
The SpiceJet operates 312 daily flights to 55 destinations, including 47 Indian and 7 international destinations from its hubs at Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Hyderabad.
