DHL uses own freighter for Jakarta-S'pore route
DHL uses own freighter for Jakarta-S'pore route
Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Courier service firm PT Birotika Semesta/DHL Express, a unit
of German postal operator Deutsche Post World Net, launched on
Thursday its own air freighter to deliver goods between Jakarta
and Singapore.
The Boeing 737-200 aircraft with a payload capacity of 13.5
tons will operate from Tuesday until Friday four times weekly.
Previously, DHL deliveries to and from Singapore were carried
on scheduled commercial airlines.
DHL Express senior technical advisor Alan Cassels said
as the demand on airfreight packages weighing between 20
kilograms and 50 kilograms from Indonesia was increasing, DHL
felt the need to have a special freighter fully dedicated for
Indonesian customers.
"The business is growing and it's important that we have the
capacity to improve...to take the expansion," Cassels said.
DHL handles 1.3 million deliveries weighing a total of 2.5
million kilograms annually from Indonesia. It has 88 outlets in
70 cities across the country and five "gateways", located
respectively in Jakarta, Denpasar, Medan, Batam and Balikpapan.
"By having our own dedicated flight, we are now in a position
to offer our customers later cut-off times, earlier deliveries,
more space and more connections through our Asian and
intercontinental air networks," he said.
Beginning March 28, DHL will also cooperate with Lufthansa
Cargo to serve five new routes connecting DHL's European hubs
(East Midland, Cologne and Brussels) with its Asia Pacific hubs
(Hong Kong and Singapore).
The Lufthansa cargo plane will operate between four and five
times weekly.
Cassels refused to provide any detail on the cost of the
aircraft, saying that "I'm not at liberty to expose the figure."
He said after achieving 6 percent growth in revenue from
Indonesia last year, DHL was expecting a "double-digit" growth
for this year.
Globally, DHL took in total revenue of 21 billion euros (US$17
billion) in 2003 with Indonesia accounting for about 10 percent.
Cassels said although DHL was now operating its own aircraft
to deliver goods between the two capitals, it would continue to
use commercial airlines as backup to handle peak demand.