DHL Aviation is a division of logistics multinational

DHL DHL (originally named after founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a multinational Import-Export Expert Company, founded in the United States and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It provides courier, package delivery, and express mail service, ...

responsible for providing

air transport Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' include fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air aircraft such as hot ai ...

capacity.

Overview

DHL Aviation is a group of airlines that are either owned, co-owned or chartered by

DHL Express DHL (originally named after founders Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn) is a multinational Import-Export Expert Company, founded in the United States and headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It provides courier, package delivery, and express mail service, ...

. DHL owns six main airlines to service various global regions: *

European Air Transport Leipzig European Air Transport Leipzig GmbH – often shortened to EAT Leipzig or EAT-LEJ – is a German cargo airline with its head office and main hub on the grounds of Leipzig/Halle Airport in Schkeuditz, Saxony. It is wholly owned by Deutsche Po ...

(EAT Leipzig) is responsible for the major part of the network for Europe, and for long-haul services to the Middle East and Africa. It operates a fleet of Boeing and Airbus freighters from its hub at the Leipzig/Halle Airport. * DHL Air UK (DHL Air), acquired by DHL in 1989, is based at

East Midlands Airport East Midlands Airport is an international airport in Castle Donington, England. The airport is situated between Loughborough (), Derby () and Nottingham (); Leicester is to the south and Lincoln, England, Lincoln northeast. It serves the maj ...

. Since July 2000, it has operated a fleet of Boeing 757 Freighters on intra-European services and a fleet of Boeing 767 freighters, primarily on transatlantic routes. * DHL Aero Expreso is a subsidiary in the Central and South America Hub in Tocumen, Panamá, operating a fleet of Boeing 737-400, 757-200 and 767-300 freighters which also serve destinations in the Caribbean and Florida. * SNAS/DHL (DHL International) handles Middle East destinations from its headquarters and main regional hub at

Bahrain International Airport Bahrain International Airport (, romanized: ''Maṭār al-Baḥrayn al-dwalī'') is the international airport of Bahrain. Located on Muharraq Island, adjacent to the capital Manama and the city of Muharraq, it serves as the hub for the nation ...

, operating a fleet of Boeing 767 freighters. The fleet is deployed throughout the Middle East and in Africa. * Blue Dart Aviation is based at

Chennai International Airport Chennai International Airport is an international airport serving the city of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, India. It is located in Tirusulam in Chengalpattu district, in the Greater Chennai Metropolitan Area around southwest of the c ...

, India, with a fleet of Boeing 757 freighters. It provides services for DHL's Indian network and regional charters. * DHL Air Austria is based at

Vienna International Airport Vienna Airport is an international airport serving Vienna, the capital of Austria. It is located in Schwechat, southeast of central Vienna and west of Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Its official name according to the Austrian Aeronaut ...

, Austria, with a fleet of Boeing 757 freighters. DHL owns the following smaller subsidiary airlines: * DHL de Guatemala, Guatemala City * DHL Ecuador, Guayaquil, Ecuador * DHL Aviation South Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa, with a fleet of ATR 72-200F operated by

Solenta Aviation Solenta Aviation is an airline based in Johannesburg, South Africa, with its maintenance base at OR Tambo International Airport. The company was founded in 2000 and operates cargo flights on regional routes throughout the Sub-Saharan Africa on b ...

. DHL had stakes in the following airlines, some of which also operate under the DHL brand or livery: * AeroLogic, Leipzig, Germany (50%). * Polar Air Cargo, Purchase, New York, United States (49%). *

Tasman Cargo Airlines Tasman Cargo Airlines Pty. Limited is an Australian cargo airline with the head office in Sydney, Australia. It operates scheduled international cargo services on behalf of DHL Express, DHL and ad hoc domestic and international cargo charters. ...

, Sydney, Australia (49%). * Vensecar Internacional,

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

, Venezuela (49%). Former owned airlines: * Air Hong Kong sold the remaining 40% shares to Cathay Pacific Airways in July 2017.

Hubs

Brussels Airport Brussels Airport is the main international airport of Belgium. It is located in the municipality of Zaventem in Flemish Brabant, northeast of Brussels. Also informally known as Brussels-National Airport or Brussels-Zaventem Airport, Brussels ...

was a main hub; when DHL planned expansion at Brussels Airport in October 2004, it created a political crisis in Belgium. In March 2021, DHL Aviation announced the relocation of one of its main hub operations from Bergamo to

Milan Malpensa Airport Milan Malpensa Airport "Silvio Berlusconi" is an international airport in Ferno, in the Province of Varese, Lombardy, Italy. It is the largest airport in northern Italy, serving Lombardy, Piedmont, and Liguria, as well as the Swiss canton of T ...

, where it opened new logistics facilities.

Fleet

, the DHL Aviation fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Accidents and incidents

* In 2002, BAL Bashkirian Airlines Flight 2937, a

Tupolev Tu-154 The Tupolev Tu-154 (; NATO reporting name: "Careless") is a three-engined, medium-range, narrow-body airliner designed in the mid-1960s and manufactured by Tupolev. A workhorse of Soviet and (subsequently) Russian airlines for several decades, ...

passenger jet, collided with DHL International Aviation ME Flight 611, a Boeing 757-200 cargo jet at over

Überlingen Überlingen (; ) is a German city on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Baden-Württemberg near the German-Swiss border, border with Switzerland. After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second-largest city in the Bodenseek ...

, Germany. All 69 passengers on board the Bashkiran flight (consisting mainly of Russian schoolchildren) and the two pilots of DHL were killed. * The DHL shootdown incident in Baghdad on 22 November 2003 wherein Iraqi insurgents fired an SA-7 "Grail"

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-ai ...

at a

European Air Transport European Air Transport N.V./S.A. (EAT) was a cargo airline headquartered in Brussels Airport (Building 4–5) and in Zaventem, Belgium, founded in 1971 and dissolved in 2010. It expanded by contracting with DHL Worldwide Express in 1985, became ...

Airbus A300 The Airbus A300 is Airbus' first production aircraft and the world's first Twinjet, twin-engine, double-aisle Wide-body aircraft, (wide-body) airliner. It was developed by ''Airbus Industrie GIE'', now merged into Airbus SE, and manufactured f ...

operating on behalf of DHL Aviation. The aircraft took off from

Baghdad Baghdad ( or ; , ) is the capital and List of largest cities of Iraq, largest city of Iraq, located along the Tigris in the central part of the country. With a population exceeding 7 million, it ranks among the List of largest cities in the A ...

airport whereupon the missile struck the left wing, disabling all three hydraulic systems and set the wing on fire. The aircraft began a dangerous

phugoid In aviation, a phugoid or fugoid () is an aircraft motion in which the vehicle Aircraft principal axes, pitches up and climbs, and then pitches down and descends, accompanied by speeding up and slowing down as it goes "downhill" and "uphill". Th ...

(vertical oscillation) but the crew managed to land safely at the airport, despite only being able to control the aircraft by adjusting the engine thrust. * On 18 March 2010, Exin Flight 3589, a DHL

Antonov An-26 The Antonov An-26 (NATO reporting name: Curl) is a twin-engined turboprop civilian and military transport aircraft, designed and produced in the Soviet Union from 1969 to 1986.Gordon, Yefim. Komissarov, Dmitry & Sergey. "Antonov's Turboprop Twins ...

aircraft made an emergency landing on the frozen

Lake Ülemiste Lake Ülemiste () is the largest of the lakes surrounding Tallinn, Estonia. Ülemiste is the main part of the Tallinn water supply system, which supplies the city with most of its drinking water. The lake is fed mostly by Kurna stream and the P ...

, close to

Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport Tallinn Airport () is the largest international airport in Estonia. The airport is also officially called Lennart Meri Tallinn Airport (') after the former president of Estonia Lennart Meri. The airport is located southeast of the city centre ...

. Initial reports indicated problems with the landing gear and one of the engines. The flight was operated by Exin on behalf of DHL. The aircraft involved was SP-FDO and the flight departed from Helsinki Airport. One of the six crew members was injured. * On 13 February 2021, the cargo door of DHL Air UK Flight 126, Boeing 757-200 freighter registered G-DHKZ, opened at an altitude of approximately after the aircraft departed from Leipzig/Halle Airport. Airframe parts fell on the grounds of a power plant approximately from the airport, but no cargo was lost, and the flight crew was able to return to Leipzig/Halle with no injuries. The incident is under investigation. * On 7 April 2022, DHL de Guatemala Flight 7216, a Boeing 757-27A (PCF), crash landed in San Jose, Costa Rica after attempting an emergency landing due to a hydraulic failure. Both crew members survived without injuries. *On 25 November 2024, Swiftair Flight 5960, a Boeing 737-476F, crashed into a house near Vilnius Airport in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. Out of the four occupants onboard, one died while two others were injured.

References

External links