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.