Corporate news

Air Charter Service Plc (ACS), the worldwide passenger and cargo air charter broker, today announces the opening of its latest office in Hong Kong SAR, China.

ACS has positioned itself to benefit from the growing Asia-Pacific and Australasian market which has seen exceptional growth in private jet usage with official figures showing that since 2003 Hong Kong International Airport has seen steady year on year growth of between 35 and 40% in executive jet movements through it’s Business Aviation Centre, a trend which is set to continue throughout Asia.

Heading up the Asia-Pacific team is Mike Walsh with 12 years aviation experience, who has relocated from the firm’s London office and is to be supported by charter brokers, trained by ACS in London to handle both passenger and cargo enquiries. Yan Fang, Thomas Chan and Stephen Fernandez join the Hong Kong team bringing the languages needed to provide the highest levels of service, namely Cantonese, Mandarin, English and Korean. Soon to join the team is office manager Money Cheng who is also tri-lingual and has worked in aviation for five years with Chinese carriers.

Mike Walsh, Director, ACS Hong Kong said: "Serving the Asia-Pacific region from Hong Kong see’s the realisation of a long term dream for ACS and the opening of the office here has been driven by our analysis of customer demand. This is a huge opportunity for ACS and we have now secured a permanent office in the Central district of Hong Kong. Business in Hong Kong, China and the region in general is undertaken face-to-face so it was vital that we established a key team here in China.”

Tony Bauckham, Managing Director, ACS said: "This is a significant move for ACS, our established global offices network in London, New York, Dubai and Moscow have seen an overall increase in flights consisting of both passenger and cargo of  285% over the last four years and we know that by expanding our presence into Asia these growth figures will be sustained.”

Air Charter Service Plc (ACS), the worldwide passenger and cargo air charter broker, today announces its accreditation as “one to watch” from The Sunday Times’ Best 100 Companies to work for list. 

This accreditation is particularly pleasing, coming as it does in the first year in which the company has entered the survey. The survey, participated in by well over 400,000 employees of thousands of British companies, is widely considered to be the definitive guide to British employers and as such it is unusual for a company to achieve accreditation without first cooperating in the survey for a number of years.  

Accreditation offers the company a number of benefits. Firstly, there will be the kudos associated with being one of the very few, elite organisations carrying the accreditation logo. Accredited organisations will be able to use the logo and their star rating in their own marketing and recruitment activity. It will also appear in the Sunday Times’ annual ‘Best Companies Guide’. This book is marketed to a wide range of recruitment centres such as universities, libraries, careers offices, etc. as well as being available for purchase at leading book stores. The company will also be listed on the ‘Best Companies Accreditation’ website with their Best Companies Index score and star rating.  

Christopher Leach, Chairman of ACS said: "Given that our growth depends on staff retention with our Brokers contributing increasingly the longer they have been with us, we needed to institutionalise good employment practices to the point of excellence.
 
“Our brokers go through a rigorous training programme, that we believe is unrivalled in the industry, and makes them the industry’s best practitioners. 

“I felt that entering each year and working on the feedback results would be a way of growing as an employer, and systematically enhance staff retention. To narrowly miss being in the Sunday Times top 100 at our first attempt is absolutely amazing.”

Air Charter Service Plc (ACS), the worldwide passenger and cargo air charter broker, today announces the appointment of Christopher Foyle as a Non-Executive Director to the Board of ACS with effect from September 1st 2007.

Christopher Foyle is a name synonymous with aviation, having worked in the industry for over 30 years. He created Air Foyle Ltd in 1977, an executive air charter company which over time became a cargo airline operating a fleet of heavy cargo aircraft. Christopher is currently Chairman of Foyles Bookshop as well as holding a number of senior positions within the aviation industry, including being Chairman of the Air League, a Trustee and Board Member of TIACA (The International Air Cargo Association) and Chairman of the British Cargo Airline Alliance (BCAA).

Christopher Foyle’s appointment is the third recent Board level hire as 2006 saw the arrival of Tony Bauckham, Managing Director and Stewart Pitt, Finance Director. Tony and Stewart bring with them many years of experience from Volga-Dnepr Group and Evergreen International Airlines, BA and the London Stock Exchange respectively. 

Christopher Leach, Chairman of ACS said:

“We are delighted to welcome Christopher Foyle onto our Board. This is an exciting time for ACS as we expand our network of offices from New York, Dubai, Moscow and London into the Far East and beyond. Christopher’s expertise in the aviation industry will be an invaluable asset to our Board as we continue to grow our business over the next few years.”

Christopher Foyle, Non-Executive Director of ACS said:

"I am delighted to be joining ACS as a Non-Executive Director. I have known and respected  its principals for many years and since ACS's small beginnings have watched it grow into one of the fastest growing and most successful forces in the UK and international aviation charter and support sector and it is continuing to expand strongly.  

“I am particularly impressed with the dynamism and motivation of its staff, their expertise and their blend of professionalism and commercial acumen. I am very much looking forward to joining the Board and making my contribution."

  Air Charter Service (ACS), the worldwide passenger and cargo air charter broker, today announces the appointment of Dmitriy Korshunov as Middle Eastern General Manager with effect from July 1st 2007. He will be based at the company’s Dubai office. 

Dmitriy Korshunov has extensive experience in aviation management and has spent the last six years in marketing with Aerovista (U.A.E), the last four of which have been as Director of Sales and Marketing. 

ACS Dubai was launched 16 months ago and has developed at such a pace that it necessitated a move to a larger office within a year of opening. During the first six months of 2007, the office booked twice as many flights as in the previous 12 month period. ACS is in the process of expanding its broker staff in Dubai to cope with the business it has and to develop further.  

ACS Dubai charters flights for customers from all over the world and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week together with the offices in London, New York and Moscow monitoring the whereabouts of over 50,000 aircraft worldwide.

Tony Bauckham, Managing Director of ACS said:“We are delighted that Dmitriy has joined our team. ACS is in a phase of global expansion and Dubai is a large part of that. His expertise in the Middle Eastern market is second to none, and this combined with the new and existing Brokers on the team will continue to make ACS Dubai a strong force on the market.”