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Air Charter Service's immediate response to disaster in the Caribbean January, 2010 Air Charter Service was called into action less than an hour after a devastating earthquake in Haiti. Just before 10pm UK time (5pm local time) on Tuesday evening a massive earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale struck less than ten miles from the centre of Port-au-Prince - the capital of Haiti. It is the largest earthquake to hit the country in two centuries. It is estimated that upwards of 50,000 people may have died as a result of the initial earthquake and the 13 subsequent aftershocks, and more than half a million homes have been affected. As a result, millions of pounds worth of aid has been pledged by the British Government and various charities. Despite the snowy conditions in southern England on Wednesday, Air Charter Service managed to work with Gatwick Airport to clear a runway so that the chartered Boeing 757 could depart with the UK search and rescue teams. Matthew Purton, Passenger Sales Manager at ACS’s London office, said: “We started receiving calls at about 11pm from the British Government for an aircraft to carry an assembled team of approximately 80 firefighters, aid workers and journalists to the affected area as soon as possible. We were working throughout the night contacting the appropriate airlines and handling agents to organise the UK’s response to the disaster.” ACS had three representatives at Gatwick first thing on Wednesday morning coordinating the aid teams and arranging check in. James Leach of ACS travelled on board the aircraft: “We flew into Santa Domingo in the neighbouring Dominican Republic as when we left the UK the control tower at Port au Prince was not operational. From what I have seen so far, the devastation appears to be on a par with when I was in Banda Aceh following the tsunami in December 2004.” James Leach is remaining on site to coordinate further relief flights.
ACS's London office has chartered further passenger and cargo aircraft, ACS also has additional aircraft operating from Scandinavia, and flights organised by the company’s Spanish and U.S. offices are also currently underway. |
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FIFA World Cup draw sees flurry of charter enquiries December, 2009 Air Charter Service has experienced a huge influx of requests for passenger charters following last Friday evening’s draw for next year’s FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Earlier this year ACS opened an office in Johannesburg as part of their expansion over what has been a good 2009 for the company, and it could not have come at a better time in the run up to the 2010 tournament. Almost half a million football supporters are expected to travel to South Africa over the month long event and without sufficient scheduled aircraft capacity, the role of charters will be huge in the tournament’s logistical operation. In anticipation of this demand Air Charter Service has secured an exclusive 110 seat DC-9 aircraft for the duration of the competition. Jon Thompson commented: “We are delighted to have this aircraft for the entire length of the World Cup. We have been receiving enquiries about next year for quite a while now, but since the draw the phones have been off the hook”. As well as the large commercial airliner charter demand ACS has also received an influx of private jet charter enquiries. Their contacts have already informed them that there are some airports that are planning on shutting down one runway to accommodate the extra aircraft, particularly for the executive jets which are expected. Having an office in South Africa is providing other valuable information such as this. Leading up to the draw for the group stages last week, Air Charter Service had representatives at Soccerex in Johannesburg – the premier football business exhibition. Joining their ACS South Africa counterparts were representatives from ACS London, including Jon Thompson, Commercial Sales Director. Following the 3 day exhibition ACS staff attended the glitzy televised draw on Friday evening – there is no sporting event without any actual play that is more watched than the World Cup draw.
Air Charter Service has a wealth of experience in football chartering – earlier this year in May the company transported more than 3,500 Manchester United fans to the UEFA Champions’ League final in Rome, and flew the losing team back home. And last month ACS transferred the Brazil national team between friendly fixtures against England in Doha and Oman in Muscat. |
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Come and visit ACS at EIBTM November, 2009 Air Charter Service is exhibiting at this year’s EIBTM (European Incentive, Business Travel and Meetings) in Barcelona. The exhibition is running between the first and the third of December this year. Air Charter Service’s stand is number F705. The EIBTM event delivers ‘three days of focused access to a dynamic business environment, thought provoking professional education and business networks for exhibitors, hosted buyers and trade visitors’. Natalia Delle Ville, general manager ACS Spain, commented: “It is important to have a presence at EIBTM - it is an opportunity to make new contacts, and reaffirm current ones. There are over 3000 international suppliers from more than 100 countries that are in attendance over the course of the exhibition.
Please visit us at EIBTM - Stand Number F705. |
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Come and meet the ACS team at Soccerex October, 2009 Air Charter Service is attending the World’s premier football exhibition - Soccerex. The event has been going for more than 10 years now, and is being held in South Africa for the third year running, in the run-up to next year’s FIFA World Cup in the country. ACS will be at Stand Number 127 throughout the exhibition which runs from Monday November 30th until Wednesday December 2nd. Lyndee du Toit, Director of ACS’s Johannesburg office, will be joined by Jon Thompson, Commercial Sales Director, and Steve Huddlestone, Sports Manager, as representatives from ACS London.
Lyndee commented: “Soccerex is a great forum to meet all the important contacts in the game. Although we only opened the South African office earlier this year, ACS has been to the previous two exhibitions here, and they were both a great success. And with the World Cup just around the corner, it’s even more important than usual to have a presence at the show”. |
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ACS expand within Europe September, 2009 Air Charter Service is delighted to announce the opening of their new office in Paris. The venture is their third passenger operation in Europe with offices already in Bilbao, Spain, and their head office in London; along with 6 other offices worldwide. Heading up the new operation is Benjamin Sinclair. Benjamin has been working in the London office for a number of months now, and is very excited to be starting ACS's office in his native France. He has many years in the industry already as both an airline pilot and as a broker. Sinclair commented: "I have established good relationships within the industry over the years, and this is a great new challenge for my self and Air Charter Service. This is the next step in the European growth of the company”. ACS France plans to utilise the global network of offices that the group has, enabling Benjamin and his team to offer such advantages as empty leg charters – where an aircraft is available flying empty in one direction already - allowing the client to charter more efficiently, therefore saving them money. ACS’ offices span four continents and continue to win more and more business with their local knowledge, a trend that the Paris office intends to keep going. ACS's managing director, Tony Bauckham, said of the new office: "Within our global strategy we have always had plans to open an office in France and it's very exciting to see those plans come to fruition. The French market is a large one, and, with a team now based in the country we are in a good position to further our already strong business there. We have opened two other new offices so far this year and we expect Paris to emulate their success". Air Charter Service was founded in 1990, and currently turns over €180 million annually and it operates over 3000 charters per year on all types of aircraft. ACS’s offerings and service have proved so popular, that in a market considered to be shrinking by 25-30% so far in 2009, ACS has grown by around 20% in the first 6 months of the year, in both terms of numbers of charters, as well as overall revenue. |
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Huge interest in the ACS Payment Protection Plan August, 2009 Air Charter Service has seen a marked increase in business in recent months with many customers citing the reason being the new payment protection plan that the commercial jet department offer. The new scheme offers our clients financial peace of mind when booking charter flights on commercial jets. Jon Thompson, Commercial Sales Director, commented: “there has been a noticeable increase in the number of flights we have sold over the past three months, with many of the customers using the plan - in July we sold more than double the number of aircraft charters compared to last July”. He added: “the plan has been put in place to ensure that you have complete and total financial protection against airline failure by reason of insolvency. In these troubled economic times assurance that you have total fiscal protection means that you can book your aircraft charters with ACS safe in the knowledge that your money is fully protected”. To learn more about the payment protection plan, please email the commercial team on: passenger@aircharter.co.uk |
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Evergreen International Aviation and Air Charter Service team up on the B 747 Supertanker July, 2009 Air Charter Service is delighted to announce that it has signed an exclusive contract with Evergreen International Aviation of Oregon, USA to become the European agent for its Boeing 747 Supertanker. Since 2002, Evergreen International Aviation has been developing the Supertanker - an advanced aerial firefighting aircraft converted from a Boeing 747. The aircraft won certification for operation this season after receiving its interim approval letter from the Interagency Air Tanker Board. The aircraft also received its Supplemental Type Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in November 2008. It is now available to assist world firefighting agencies during the 2009 season and beyond. The award is unique because the Supertanker has an 8:1 drop ratio compared to that of all other current firefighting aircraft, meaning the Supertanker will forever change the way wildland fires are fought. The plane is the first of a fleet designed to accommodate the needs of U.S. and International private and public agencies. The aircraft’s drop capabilities, effectiveness, safety standards and operational flexibility are all revolutionary. It is the most advanced, targeted and largest capacity firefighting jet in the world. With a 77,600 litre (20,500 gallons) capacity, it is able of carrying almost twice the amount of retardant than any other firefighting aircraft. It is also the only aircraft to have a variable pressure delivery system, and is able to perform segmented drops, meaning it can fight more than one fire in a single mission. It also has loiter capability enabling ground control to direct it to specific areas. The Supertanker also has the ability to respond quickly to a variety of environmental and homeland security threats. Wide area decontamination, soil stabilization, oil spill response, and radiation knockdown are all within the response capability of the Supertanker, making it the most versatile aerial application vehicle in the World. Tony Bauckham, Managing Director of ACS, was formerly Executive Vice President of Evergreen International Airlines, and was involved from the early stages in the development of the Supertanker. He commented: “After so much hard work from the Evergreen team it is exciting to see this project completed. ACS feels privileged to be able to offer this aircraft within Europe to reduce the damage caused by costly forest fires. Europe has experienced several notable forest fires in the last few years, and the Supertanker is a major addition to the continent’s fire fighting capabilities.” Since its inception in 1990, Air Charter Service has always been available 24/7, which will prove essential when the Supertanker is required. ACS currently works alongside many European governments when humanitarian aid is urgently needed after natural disasters, and is very pleased to have added the Boeing 747 Supertanker to its portfolio of services to those same governments. For all supertanker enquiries please email matthew.purton@aircharter.co.uk |
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ACS helps film star relive D-Day landings 65 years on June, 2009 Air Charter Service's account manager, Mark Garza, received a telephone call from a Sunday newspaper, the News of the World, last week asking for a flight to help commemorate probably one of the most significant days in history. Almost 65 years to the day after the D-Day landings of World War II on June 6th 1944, the newspaper, with the help of ACS, took Richard Todd back to Normandy where he had been the first paratrooper to jump from an aircraft over the French province. Just a few days short of his 90th birthday, Todd feared he may be too old to visit the site once more for the 65th anniversary. The News of the World decided to step in and charter an aircraft to transport Richard to France, and this is where ACS was able to help. On a Friday evening Mark was able to swiftly find a suitable PA34 to take Todd, and two of the newspaper’s reporters, across the Channel to the French airport of Caen in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Todd, however, is not best known for this, but in fact became a household name as a movie star in the 50s, 60s and 70s. He appeared in World War II inspired films such as The Dam Busters. Significantly for this trip, Todd re-enacted the D-Day scenes he took part in 18 years later when he appeared in the 1962 film The Longest Day playing his own commanding officer, Major John Howard. Strangely, someone else portrayed Todd in the film! |
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Air Charter Service launches empty leg service April, 2009 Ever more popular is the use of empty legs, the secret to reduced rate private charter. When ACS has an aircraft going one way, it often needs to get back to its original location or home base. This is when the aircraft will fly empty, known as an ‘empty leg’. These empty legs are offered for a reduced cost, a saving of up to 75%, this makes the cost of private air travel even more competitive when looked at along side the cost of business class. Empty legs are commonly used for:
Air Charter Service has launched its empty leg service which, which matches clients’ preferred routes with empty legs. Whether it is taking a loved one on a surprise weekend away or fly to your second home just let ACS know and when a matching empty leg becomes available we will contact you. Call +44 (0)20 8614 6299 to speak to an empty leg specialist who will help you find a suitable solution to fit your needs. Click here to register for a weekly email of empty legs added in the past 7 days. |
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Air Charter Service named in Sunday Times Top 100 as they lead the way for aviation in Best Companies guide March, 2009 ACS is pleased to announce that not only has it been awarded an ‘outstanding’ 2 star accreditation from Best Companies but has also been named in the Sunday Times best SME to work for list which was published in March 2009. Following a survey carried out by Best Companies of ACS staff, the company was scored on a range of factors including personal growth, feeling part of the company, pay and benefits and employee’s interest in and enjoyment of their jobs. Following the rapid growth ACS has experienced in a highly competitive market, employees feel excited about where the company is going and the scores reflected that with an incredible 85% positive score in that category. Another notably high score included the training category where ACS received an 81% score and was named in the top 10 best companies for training in this weeks Sunday Times supplement. Chris Leach, Chairman of the ACS group said, “I am extremely proud to receive these official accreditations; however the most pleasing thing is the way our staff feels towards the company. I have always said that this is a ‘people’ business and the company has worked tirelessly to look after ‘our people’ over the years so for me this is just a fantastic testament to our management team.” The two star accreditation places ACS as the highest ranking company in the aviation industry to appear in the 2009 Best companies guide.
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