India's Blue Dart Aviation to operate B757 freighter for DHL

Former Polar Air Cargo exec extradited to US

A former chief operating officer at Polar Air Cargo (PO, New York JFK) was extradited from Thailand to the United States last month to face wire fraud and money laundering charges. Lars Winkelbauer was one of four senior executives at Polar Air Cargo and six vendors indicted by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) in April 2023 over an alleged USD52 million fraud. At the time, Winkelbauer was in Thailand, where local authorities arrested him pending his extradition.

According to the Loadstar outlet, authorities processed Winkelbauer upon his arrival in the United States. He was released on a USD750,000 bond and is subject to electronic monitoring. The allegations are that between 2009 and 2021, the ten individuals defrauded Polar Air Cargo by accepting millions of dollars in kickbacks from the vendor defendants in exchange for ensuring that those vendors received favourable business arrangements with Polar. Winkelbauer's matter is the United States v. Winkelbauer, 23-CR-133 (JMF), ECF No. 3 (S.D.N.Y.).

"The defendants, all of whom were either employed in high-level positions by Polar or were...

India's Blue Dart Aviation outlines B737-800 freighter plans

Air India mulls dedicated freighters - reports

Air India (AI, Mumbai International) is looking at acquiring dedicated freighters according to a report in The Business Standard. The airline is reportedly keen to snag a larger share of India's growing air cargo market. Currently, Air India flies cargo in the belly holds of its passenger aircraft.

“We are exploring the possibility of inducting freighter capacity into the network, both directly and in collaboration with partners," Air India told the outlet via an email statement. In February, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson told media that cargo would be a significant part of Air India's overall revenue mix in the future, and that capacity and systems to accommodate this would be built up.

Earlier this year, Air India placed a firm order for 470 aircraft split across various Airbus and Boeing family types. However, the order did not include any freighters. “The newly ordered aircraft, particularly the wide-body aircraft, comes with a lot of belly cargo space," said Wilson, when asked about this.

In 2022, India generated 2.25 million tonnes...

India's Blue Dart to add ex-SpiceJet B737 freighters

Blue Dart Aviation (BZ, Chennai) has secured near unanimous shareholder approval to acquire two B737-800(F)s from DHL Express, which, according to Cargo Facts, are likely to be ex-SpiceJet (SG, Delhi International) units.

The German logistics firm, which is a 75% shareholder and a commercial partner of Blue Dart Aviation, acquired the two B737-800(BCF)s from Spectre Air Capital in December 2022. N901JK (msn 30474) and N605JJ (msn 30475) were ferried from Naples Capodichino to Nottingham East Midlands in mid-December and remain at the British airport, Flightradar24 ADS-B data shows. They were retired by SpiceJet in August and September, when the airline chose a fleet of three B737-700(BDSF) for its cargo unit, SpiceXpress.

Blue Dart Aviation sought shareholder consent to acquire two B737-800 freighters in late November. At that time, it estimated the total cost of the transaction to be approximately INR4.1 billion rupees (USD50 million). In a Bombay Stock Exchange filing on December 23, it said that 85.1% of all shareholders and 99.9% of...