AI set to fly on cargo business

The National Aviation Company of India Limited (Nacil) is all set to make a pretty penny from its old aircraft by converting them into cargo freighters operations.The carrier, which will have a fleet of eight freighters ready by the end of this month, started converting its old aircraft after they were considered too unsafe or too old to ferry passengers. So far Air India has converted six B737-200 passenger aircraft into freighters and is in the process converting two Airbus A310 passenger aircraft.“The conversion will be done by the end September,” Air India spokesperson Jitender Bhargava said. The national aviation company will soon invite global bids for leasing out two of its A310 freighters. It already has leasing agreements with the department of post and logistics major Gati for the rest of the aircraft.“We will soon put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to lease out the two A310 freighters aircraft,” an official said. Air India had earlier planned to deploy these configured aircaft in its cargo service but it could not find a profitable route for these freighters and therefore decided to lease them out.The leasing deal is working so well for the carrier that the department of post has requested Air India to give it more aircraft so as to raise the number of freighters to four aircraft. The DoP mainly uses the aircraft for its air mail operations to the northeastern part of the country.The national carrier made around Rs 412 crore from cargo operations in 2000-01. This has more than doubled to Rs 834 crore for the fiscal year 2007-08.The revenues from cargo contribute nearly 10% of the total revenues of the carrier.

Source: http://www.indianaviationnews.net/