ASTAR Air Cargo is a cargo airline based in Miami, Florida, USA. It operates cargo charter services to over 40 US and international airports from its main hub at Wilmington, Ohio (ILN), which is owned by DHL.

Code Data

• IATA Code: ER
• ICAO Code: DHL
• Callsign: DHL

History

The airline was established and started operations in 1969. It was formed as DHL Worldwide Express by Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn to shuttle bills of lading between Hawaii and San Francisco. It later became DHL Airways and grew rapidly, initiating services to the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, creating a new industry of door-to-door express services in the Pacific Basin. With the Acquisition of DHL by Deutsche Post WorldNet in 2000, the airline was spun off from DHL and a majority stake sold to a private investor in order to comply with Federal foreign ownership laws. FedEx and UPS challenged the U.S. citizenship of DHL Airways, asserting to the Department of Transportation that DPWN exercised effective operational control of the airline. In July 2003, a US investment group headed by John Dasburg (now Chairman, Chief Executive and President of the airline), completed the purchase of the airline using financing provided by Boeing Capital and subsequently changed the name to ASTAR Air Cargo. As with DHL Airways, it will continue to operate primarily for DHL Worldwide Express. Most of its planes are painted in the yellow and red DHL livery. It is owned by John Dasburg (37%), Richard Blum (33%) and Michael Klein (30%).

Services

ASTAR Air Cargo operates the following freight services (as of July 2006):

• Domestic scheduled destinations: Allentown, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Detroi, El Paso, Fort Lauderdale, Hartford, Houston, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Manchester, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St Paul, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Newark, Norfolk, Ontario, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Providence, Rochester, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tampa

• International scheduled destinations: Bahrain, Barcelona, Belfast, Brussels, Calgary, Cologne, Copenhagen, Dublin, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Glasgow, Gothenburg, Guadalajara, Halifax, Helsinki, Kingston, London, Madrid, Malmö, Malta, Mexico City, Milan, Montreal, Nottingham, Oslo, Ottawa, Panama City, Porto, Saltillo, San Juan, Shannon Airport, St Croix, St Thomas, Stockholm, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg

Fleet

The ASTAR Air Cargo fleet consists of the following aircraft (at March 2006):

• 6 Airbus A300B4-200F
• 28 Boeing 727-200
• 9 McDonnell Douglas DC-8-73AF
• 1 Bell 206L-1

External links

• Official Website Astar Air Cargo

Cargo airlines | Airlines of the United States

Astar Air Cargo | ASTAR Air Cargo