Current news

After three months of meticulous planning and prolonged contact with her client, Maureen Huang of the Hong Kong office delivered a perfect charter solution; albeit by just 3cm.

Having worked closely with the technical team throughout deliberating over packaging and cargo preparation, having to change plans no less than 5 times, the 32 tonne, 4.2m high piece fitted through the loading door of the AN-124 by a miniscule 3cm (see picture for proof).

Following a storm in Morocco last month a large vessel ran aground on the country’s shores. After initial attempts failed to shift the ship, Air Charter Service was called upon.

Two tugs were dispatched from Gibraltar immediately after the incident occurred by a specialist salvage company and they headed straight to the port of Jorf Lasfar (just south of Casablanca) where the vessel was stuck. Unfortunately, they could only get within a few hundred metres of it, and the 64 mm towing wire that was onboard was too lightweight to pull the vessel from that distance.

At this point the company telephoned ACS for their help. The salvage company had sourced a coil of 400 metres of specialist rope that was located in Athens. The quickest way to get it to the tugs at Jorf Lasfar was to charter an aircraft from Athens to Malaga and then drive it the rest of the way – a journey of around eight hours by truck.

The towing wire is able to withstand in excess of three hundred tons and, with the aid of twenty special buoys (also transported on the charter), they were able to rescue the stricken vessel successfully.

Air Charter Service’s Hong Kong office has completed its first few staff relocation flights out of Japan after fears over the extent of radiation leak heighten, and has arranged more.

Gavin Copus, CEO of ACS Asia Pacific, said: “On Tuesday we chartered a 400 seat Boeing 777-300 to relocate a corporate client’s staff from Tokyo to Hong Kong. Their office in Tokyo was having problems with intermittent power and the company was worried about their staff’s general well-being following the radiation leaks. We also chartered a Boeing 747 that landed yesterday. It’s not going to be the last of these sort of flights either – we have a few more booked, all flying over the coming days from the Tokyo area. Both Haneda and Narita Airports to the north of the city are open, but most people are migrating to the south and heading towards Osaka and Nagoya. We will also be repatriating various different nationalities in the coming days.”

Copus then added: “2011 is fast becoming a very busy year for evacuations. I know that some people across our worldwide offices have been working seven days a week! Since the uprisings in Egypt and then Libya, it has been non-stop for more than six weeks.”

Egypt
Air Charter Service evacuated almost 2,000 foreign nationals after the uprising began on January 25th 2011. ACS arranged 26 charters in total from both Cairo and Alexandria.

Libya
The situation in Libya was on an even greater scale – ACS evacuated more than 6,000 people from Tripoli and Sebha in the country across 34 flights. Amongst these was the last British governmental flight out of Tripoli carrying the FCO workers and final remaining Britons. ACS was not, however, involved in the heavily criticised first few British evacuation flights. The company had people on the ground in the region including in Malta where an airbridge was set up by ACS from Tripoli (only one hour away by air) to enable a speedier evacuation process.

Tunisia
ACS then conducted a further 13 flights from neighbouring Tunisia, after many people fled across the border from Libya. ACS flew more than 2,000 foreign nationals from the Tunisian airport of Djerba. The company’s cargo departments chartered aircraft into Tunis that brought in over two hundred tons of aid including tents, blankets and food.

New Zealand
Following the earthquake near Christchurch, ACS arranged an American governmental aid flight carrying search and rescue teams, as well as 65 tons of relief cargo.

Totals (excluding Japan):
Time scale: 6 weeks
Flights: 75
Passengers: 10,000+
Cargo: 300 tons

Air Charter Service’s Hong Kong operation has relocated to new offices after having had its record year. Offering both, passenger and cargo air charters, the ACS Hong Kong office saw around a 30% growth in business. This increase, coupled with the expansion in their sales force has meant the Hong Kong team have had to move to bigger offices in order to accommodate their growth.

The Hong Kong team have relocated to their new office in Admiralty, which boasts a greater space and more room to expand into. Managing Director, Tony Bauckham, explains: “we had completely outgrown our office space – we literally had no spare desks left at all. We are growing at such a rate that we always knew we were going to eventually need more room.”

The Hong Kong offices’ relocation to bigger offices is testament to the company’s omnipresent approach to being the best and towards continued growth.

Bauckham added, “We’ve recently opened new offices in Frankfurt and Sao Paulo, and have plans for more this year if our business continues as well as it did in 2010”.

Head of the Asia-Pacific team is Gavin Copus, with over 15 years’ experience in the aviation industry. He is supported by a team of both, passenger and cargo account managers.

Air Charter Service’s Hong Kong office had the busiest period in its history in the final quarter of last year, and signs are that it may be bettered this year.

Stephen Fernandez, cargo manager ACS Hong Kong, commented: “Last year October and November were extremely busy charter-wise with large freighters mainly to supplement scheduled capacity to Europe and the U.S.  It came as a pleasant surprise after turbulent economic times worldwide and the lack of a peak season in 2008.

“In early October last year there was a sudden lack of availability on scheduled service B747s, which caused many forwarders to look at chartered flights to secure additional capacity. This year we have already seen clients booking a large number of charters - generally running from the end of September - in preparation for the upcoming peak season. So far we have mainly contracted B747 freighters, and have pre-booked more than 4,000 tons of cargo”. Fernandez continued: “Judging by the number of forward bookings, a very busy peak season is expected.”

Last year we wondered whether it was bit of a false peak season created by capacity that had been taken out of the market by airlines parking up some of their fleets, but demand this year already seems to be high.”

Air Charter Service has eleven offices around the world, and their offerings of cargo charters, private jet charter and commercial airliner charter, have meant incredible growth in the last few years and the company now operates more than 4,000 charters a year and has a turnover of over US$ 250 million.

Air Charter Service has successfully completed the first charter of an IL-96 into Australia. The aircraft, operated by Polet Airlines, flew from Liege, Belgium into Adelaide, South Australia on 1st July.

The cargo was a four and a half ton slewing ring for a blast furnace and, although the piece had been months in production, it was vital to get it to its destination as soon as it was finished. As it had a huge diameter of 368 centimetres, and could not be tilted, it was too large for a B747, which meant that the IL-96 was the ideal aircraft for the job.

Stephen Fernandez, cargo charter manager ACS Hong Kong, said: “The IL-96 was the perfect aircraft for this charter, and we’re delighted to be the first to operate into Australia with it. My client and I signed the contract only a few days ago, and between Polet and ACS we obtained all the relevant permissions in a very short space of time to get the aircraft moving as quickly as possible.

The flight itself went without a hitch and landed on schedule in Adelaide. Polet sales manager, Oleg Kuzmin, said: “We are very happy to have been able to operate the IL-96 into Australia for the first time, and we are grateful to ACS for the opportunity. We hope that this will be the first of many into the country.”

Air Charter Service’s Hong Kong office has had a record first quarter. All of ACS’s ten worldwide offices have enjoyed a successful first quarter of the year, but Hong Kong in particular has thrived.

Gavin Copus, Director ACS Hong Kong, said: “The charter market here in Asia is booming at the moment. There was a real peak season with cargo charters towards the end of last year, and it has continued into 2010.

“We had a great 2009, but we’ve seen incredible growth in the first three months of this year. With sales in excess of US$ 2.6 million in what is traditionally the quiet part of the year is a great achievement, and all credit goes to my team, who have worked exceptionally hard.”

In recent weeks finding solutions for our customers affected by the volcanic ash cloud in Northern Europe has been our main focus. By the time Europe woke up to the news on Thursday 15th April, we had already been working on ideas to help our customers, including flying into southern Europe as soon as possible.”

Air Charter Service enjoyed a fantastic 2009 across its ten offices having its record year. The company operated over 4,000 charters.

For all your cargo charter needs contact our team: cargo@aircharter.com.hk

Air Charter Service’s Hong Kong office recently had an extremely urgent shipment of gas turbine parts to move between two Indonesian islands.

ACS received the call late in the evening to fly more than 12 tonnes of equipment from the capital Jakarta to Ujung Pandang on Sulawesi Island as soon as was possible. Air Charter Service found the perfect solution by locating a nearby B737 aircraft.

After a quick confirmation from the client, ACS positioned the aircraft into Jakarta International Airport in the early hours of the following morning, and the cargo was actually able to depart three hours earlier than the proposed schedule due to the client’s, airline’s and ACS’s organisation.

The client was extremely grateful for the early arrival, and therefore was able to use the parts that much sooner than expected.

For all your cargo charter needs contact our team: cargo@aircharter.com.hk

Air Charter Service’s Hong Kong office has flourished in a peak season that, to many, has come as a pleasant surprise. Freight volumes moving on charters have dramatically increased since early October.

Stephen Fernandez, cargo manager ACS Hong Kong, explains: “We started receiving enquiries in the middle of September, but it wasn’t until early October that they started booking the flights and the market really picked up. There was, all of a sudden, a lack of availability on B747s. At first most of the freight travelled trans-Pacific over to the States, and then the European market also saw increased demand. However in the last week or so the U.S. has got a little bit quieter in the run-up to Thanksgiving, but that’s to be expected”.

After last year’s distinct lack of peak season in the run-up to Christmas, and the general doom and gloom regarding the economy this year, this boom has come as a refreshing change.

Fernandez isn’t getting carried away though: “One theory is that this is a bit of a ‘faux’ peak season created by capacity that has been taken out of the market by airlines parking up some of their fleets. Still, it’s fuelled by demand, which can only be a good thing. How much this resurgent demand is galvanised by fewer aircraft is hard to say though”.

Air Charter Service has had a record year in 2009, both in number of charters, and in revenue. Their offerings of cargo charters, private jet charter and commercial airliner charter, along with the opening of three new offices in Paris, Johannesburg and Tokyo have played their part in this year’s success.

For all your charter needs contact: cargo@aircharter.com.hk

Stephen Fernandez, cargo manager ACS Hong Kong, recently had a request to fly a large hydraulic winch and some fluid for an offshore vessel from Singapore to Port Hedland, in the north of Western Australia.

The cargo weighed more than 65 tons, and the customer asked Stephen to transport it from their factory to the airport which proved the toughest part of the operation. This involved several flatbed trucks, a mobile crane for loading, and a police escort along the roads. Using his many contacts Stephen managed to arrange everything to allow the transportation to go ahead problem free. 

Once at the airport it was the relatively simple exercise of loading everything onto the waiting AN-124. The urgent freight touched down in Australia ahead of the original schedule, much to the customer’s delight.

For all your charter needs contact: cargo@aircharter.com.hk