Cargo charter news

December 2004

New office in New York

Due to continuing growth, Air Charter Service Plc were pleased to announce the opening of our new Stateside office in November.

The office, based in Long Beach, NY will be run by Ruan Courtney, who is moving from his position as Cargo Sales Director in London to head up the new operation.

Chris Leach, Group Chairman, said of the new venture, "the USA is a principle market within the aviation industry and as Air Charter Service continues to grow in to a worldwide brand it was essential for us to establish a presence in this key region".

"Americans demand service and are a service orientated culture", Leach continues, "something which sits very well with Air Charter Service's customer service orientated methodology".

For further information contact Ruan Courtney or visit our website at www.aircharterserviceusa.com

November 2004

Cargo expansion

Due to unprecedented demand for the aircraft, Air Charter Service are pleased to announce an additional AN26 aircraft to our managed fleet.

‘Since the changes to the EU membership in May, our other two AN26’s have been flying continuously’ said Justin Bowman, Commercial Director of Air Charter Service ‘it was obvious that we had to add another AN26 to our fleet to deal with all the extra work’.

The new AN26 will be based at East Midlands airport where we have opened a second ops office to supplement our Ostend operations office. ‘The central UK location will allow us to better serve our UK based clients’ said Bowman.

Please contact Justin for further information.

Beat of the drum

Two knock out drums for a gas processing plant were flown from Manchester to the UAE this month and went through unusual safety checks prior to the flight. Due to the nature of the cargo it was impossible to use traditional techniques such as hand searching or x-raying. Instead 6 samples of air were withdrawn from the interior of the drums which were then ‘inspected’ by sniffer dogs. Dan Morgan-Evans, Account Manager, who organised the flight visited the manufacturing plant prior to the flight and also discussed the loading logistics with the Airline. On the day, the two 27 ton pieces were loaded with no problems in just under four hours.

For information on this flight or heavy and outsize charter requirements please contact Dan.

October 2004

Drive time

Eighteen Nissan Patrol vehicles were recently flown from Europe to the Middle East. Carefully loaded at Prague airport in under two hours the cargo weighed only 65 tons but completely filled the hold of the AN124.

For further information please contact Paul.

September 2004

Come and meet us! 

The Cargo Team at Air Charter Service will be at the 22 nd International Air Cargo Forum and Exposition (ACF) in September. The conference held in the Spanish city of Bilbao takes place from September 14 th - 17 th . Stop by for a coffee at stand 548 and meet the Team.

For further information please contact Sharron

ACS take part in Olympics 

Air Charter Service have taken part in the Olympics this year by flying Orchestra equipment to the Greek capital on an An12. The instruments, weighing nine tons, will be used for the spectacular closing ceremony in Athens . 

For more information please contact Gary

August 2004

Macy Gray

When most famous celebrities insist on travelling first class, it was refreshing to hear that the down-to-earth American singer Macy Gray actually asked to fly on a cargo plane recently. The unusual request came about when Macy was asked to take a detour from her European tour and invited to appear at a festival in Riga, Latvia. Because it was such short notice her band equipment was unable to fly schedule service, so Justin Bowman organised a Metro II to take her kit to the Balkan state. When Ms Gray heard this she begged to go on the flight. Unfortunately there simply wasn't enough room for an extra passenger and the irrepressible Macy flew scheduled service instead.

For further information on urgent cargo requirements please contact Justin

Big pieces from the Big country

Two pieces of cargo weighing 30 tons each were recently flown on an AN124 from Vancouver in Canada to Chateauroux in France. The huge pieces of machinery were loaded using a heavy loading rail system in Vancouver and were even filmed being off loaded by local French television. Ben Dinsdale who organised the flight said ‘despite the size and the weight of the machinery, there were no problems or delays at all in loading and off loading’.

Please contact Ben for more information on heavy and outsize cargo

July 2004

ACS involved in aid to Sudan

Air Charter Service have been heavily involved in the recent humanitarian crisis on the Sudan-Chad border, an area of Africa badly affected by civil war.

In June alone, we organised 26 flights for a number of international aid agencies and charities as well as the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID).

A combination of IL76’s, A300’s, AN12’s and DC8’s have flown aid to various sites around the African region, including Nyala, El Fasher and the Sudan Capital, Khartoum as well as N’djamena and Abeche in Chad.

So far 686 tons of tents, blankets and plastic sheeting, 215 tons of food parcels and 16 tons of water pipes and water pumps have been sent to help the 180,000 refugees that have fled the Darfur region of Sudan in to Chad. A further estimated 800,000 refugees have been left homeless in Sudan prompting the United Nations to describe it as the ‘world’s worst humanitarian crisis’.

For further information on relief work please contact Justin Bowman.

Helicopters to Haiti

Helicopters supplied by ACS were essential for aid and personnel transportation during the recent floods in Haiti.

An Mi8 helicopter was leased by the World Food Programme (WFP) for two weeks and used to supply vital foodstuffs such as grain and high energy biscuits, fresh water and non food items and medicines to the remote town of Mapou, where 1500 were feared dead after the devastating floods.

In addition, the WFP had a three-week lease on a Bell 206L Longranger Helicopter, which transported key charity personnel to the affected areas, unreachable by road.

Andy Holmes who organised the flight with WFP said “the journey from the capital Port au Prince to Mapou is normally eight to ten hours even without the roads being flooded. Using helicopters was the only way we could get food and clean water to these people.”

For further information on relief work please or helicopter charters please contact Andy Holmes.

June 2004

Winning by a nose

A Boeing 747 200 nose loader was the ideal aircraft for the job when an 88 foot long oil flow pipe was flown from East Midlands to New Orleans recently.

Two high-loaders and three cranes were needed to load the 4.7 ton piece, which was doubly difficult because of the flexibility of the piece. However, the loading was amazingly completed in just under an hour.

For further information of heavy and outsize cargo please contact Justin

More Air Charter Service cargo news stories...