Blue Dart Aviation

When parcels fly through the night in India, an aircraft from Blue Dart Aviation is very often among them. The cargo airline from Chennai is small, but a fixture in its market: it flies the air network of Blue Dart Express, the big Indian express service under the DHL Group umbrella. For spotters it is an exciting target – a pure freighter fleet of 757s and 737s from Boeing, its own brand instead of DHL yellow, and operations almost only in the dark. Here you’ll learn how the airline is set up and how to recognize it with confidence. You’ll find general tips for your hobby on location in the guide Plane spotting in India.

Blue Dart Aviation at a glance

Blue Dart Aviation is an Indian cargo airline based in Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu. Management works right at the airport, in the old international terminal. The company was founded in May 1994 as a wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Dart Express. According to Blue Dart, it was the first private company in India to receive a permit to operate cargo aircraft.

The first flight took place on June 17, 1996 – with two Boeing 737-200 freighters. Blue Dart describes this as the launch of the first jet-powered express airline in India. With its own freighters, Blue Dart Express could decide for itself when shipments depart and when they arrive.

The idea behind it is still the same today: parcels are collected in the evening, flown between the metropolitan areas at night and delivered the next morning. That is why Blue Dart Aviation is not an airline where you buy tickets or book cargo as you would with a classic cargo airline. It primarily flies for a single customer – Blue Dart Express.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code BZ: appears in flight numbers and cargo documents.
• ICAO code BDA: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on most flight trackers.
• Callsign BLUE DART: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio.

For you at the spot, the ICAO code matters most. Cargo flights aren’t on the departure board in the terminal. If you want to know whether a Blue Dart freighter is coming during the night, a look at ADS-B data helps. How to use trackers sensibly is explained in the guide to flight tracking for spotters.

Blue Dart and DHL: who belongs to whom?

The ownership structure is confusing at first glance because two companies bear almost the same name.

Blue Dart Express is the express service. It was founded in 1983, is based in Mumbai and is listed on the stock exchange in India. A partnership with DHL began in 2002, and in 2005 DHL took the majority. According to Blue Dart, DHL Express (Singapore) now holds 75 percent of Blue Dart Express. Through Blue Dart Express, customers also reach the worldwide network of DHL Group.

Blue Dart Aviation is the airline. It was initially a pure subsidiary of Blue Dart Express. In 2005, Blue Dart Express sold a large part of the shares, and in 2015, according to the company timeline, it increased its stake again by 21 percent. The airline operates as a dedicated service provider for Blue Dart Express.

Company	Role	Headquarters	DHL connection
Blue Dart Express	Express and parcel service	Mumbai	75% owned by DHL Express
Blue Dart Aviation	Cargo airline (BZ/BDA)	Chennai	Flies on behalf of Blue Dart Express
DHL Group	Parent company of the express service	Bonn	Operates its own airlines worldwide under DHL Aviation

That puts Blue Dart in the DHL world, but it isn’t part of the DHL fleet in the narrower sense. With airlines such as European Air Transport Leipzig, DHL Air UK or DHL Aero Expreso you see the typical yellow. With Blue Dart, you don’t. How the big express services organize their air fleets is explained in the overview of the integrators DHL, FedEx and UPS.

The fleet: Boeing 757 and 737-800 as freighters

The fleet is small and easy to keep track of. According to Blue Dart’s fact sheet, it looks like this in 2026:

Type	Number	Payload	Since	Spotter note
Boeing 757-200 freighter	6	about 28 t	2006	Workhorse of the night network, converted passenger aircraft
Boeing 737-800 freighter	2	–	2024	Newest types in the fleet, also conversions
Boeing 737-200 freighter	– (retired)	–	1996	Historic: the airline’s launch fleet

Boeing 757-200: the backbone

The first Boeing 757 arrived on June 1, 2006. According to Blue Dart, these were the first 757 freighters in India at all. At the start, two aircraft connected the five big metropolitan areas. After that the fleet grew step by step: the fourth 757 came in 2008, the fifth in 2012 and the sixth in 2016. In 2020, Blue Dart bought two of the six aircraft; the others are leased.

The Blue Dart 757s aren’t factory-built freighters, but converted passenger aircraft. You’ll find more on the difference between original freighters and conversions at the Boeing 757-200F. According to Blue Dart, a 757 takes on around 28 tonnes of cargo. On the main deck, 14 pallets and one container fit, plus two cargo holds on the lower deck for loose cargo.

Other express networks also rely on the type, such as Cargojet in Canada. The 757 is almost ideal for a night network in India. It’s slim enough for smaller airports, but clearly larger than a 737. For spotters it is an increasingly rare subject in general: many passenger airlines retired the Boeing 757-200 long ago, but it lives on in the cargo business.

Boeing 737-800: the new arrivals

In 2024, according to Blue Dart’s company timeline, two Boeing 737-800s joined. They too are converted passenger aircraft. According to Wikipedia, it is the conversion under Boeing’s own program, the 737-800BCF. With them, Blue Dart can serve routes where a 757 would be too big.

The historic fleet: Boeing 737-200

At its start, Blue Dart Aviation flew with two freighters of the Boeing 737-200 type. By 2004 the 737 fleet had grown to five aircraft. With the arrival of the 757, the old twinjets were gradually replaced; according to Wikipedia, the last 737-200 flew until 2014. They are no longer in service today. Photos of the Blue Dart 737-200 are therefore a historic collector’s item.

757 or 737? How to tell the two apart

At night and against the light, the two freighters look more alike than you’d think: both slim, both with two engines under the wings, both without windows. A few features help you tell them apart.

If you’re unsure whether an aircraft is a 757 or a 767, the guide Telling the Boeing 757 and 767 apart helps. For the 737 family there’s the comparison of the 737 generations – there you’ll also see why the old 737-200 stands out so clearly from the 737-800.

How to recognize Blue Dart

The most important feature is the “Blue Dart” titles on the fuselage. Even though the company belongs to DHL Group, the aircraft wear their own brand. You won’t see the yellow DHL design at Blue Dart.

Add to that the typical features of a freighter: no row of windows on the fuselage and a large cargo door at the front left, through which pallets are loaded onto the main deck. How to recognize cargo conversions in general is explained in the article Recognizing cargo aircraft.

The aircraft are registered in India and therefore carry VT registrations. The prefix VT was assigned back in the days of British India and still applies to Indian aircraft today. How registrations are built in general is shown in the guide Understanding aircraft registrations.

The network: night flights between India’s metropolitan areas

Blue Dart Aviation flies a classic night network. Flights depart late in the evening so that customers can hand in their shipments as late as possible. Landings are in the early morning hours so that delivery can still begin the same day.

According to Blue Dart, the airline operates warehouses at seven airports: Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. Hyderabad joined in 2004 as the sixth airport, Ahmedabad in 2006 as the seventh. According to Wikipedia, Guwahati in the northeast is now part of the network too. According to its own figures, Blue Dart flies 74 route connections every night, and the payload across the whole network is around 504 tonnes.

A particularity by Indian standards: all seven warehouses have their own X-ray facilities. This lets cargo be accepted without the usual security-related waiting time. Blue Dart Aviation also maintains its aircraft itself – according to Blue Dart up to the D-check, the biggest overhaul in an aircraft’s life.

Blue Dart flies abroad only in exceptional cases. In 2020, during the pandemic, the 757s brought medical supplies from Guangzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong as well as from Myanmar and Bangladesh to India. As early as 2001, the airline helped with relief flights after the earthquake in Gujarat.

Spotting Blue Dart: tips for your India trip

In Europe, you will practically never see Blue Dart. If you want to add the airline to your collection, it’s best to plan it into a trip to India. You have good chances at the big airports, such as Delhi Airport, in Mumbai or in Chennai, where the airline has its base.

There you meet Blue Dart alongside the big Indian passenger airlines such as IndiGo, Air India, Akasa Air or SpiceJet. It’s the combination that is appealing: IndiGo relies mainly on Airbus, Blue Dart only on Boeing.

Because many flights run in the dark, planning for the morning hours is worthwhile. How to still get usable pictures at night is shown in the guide Photographing aircraft at night. Parked freighters can also be seen in the cargo area during the day – often only from a distance, though.

Common mix-ups

• Thinking Blue Dart is DHL – the aircraft wear their own brand, even though DHL Group stands behind it.
• Equating Blue Dart Express and Blue Dart Aviation – one is the express service from Mumbai, the other the airline from Chennai.
• Confusing the 757 with a 767 – the 757 is a single-aisle narrowbody, the 767 a widebody.
• Thinking the 737-800 is a passenger aircraft – without windows and with a cargo door, it is clearly a conversion.
• Still looking for the old 737-200 – the launch fleet was retired long ago.
• Thinking Blue Dart is a cargo airline you can book – at its core it flies for a single customer.

Conclusion

Blue Dart Aviation is a small airline of great importance to Indian express traffic. Since 1996 it has flown Blue Dart Express’s parcels between the metropolitan areas at night – first with the 737-200, since 2006 with the Boeing 757 and since 2024 also with converted 737-800s. For spotters it is a rare subject: its own brand instead of DHL yellow, a pure freighter fleet and hardly any flights in daylight. If you get up early on a trip to India, though, you have good chances.