Current Air Cargo Charter News 2011
Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 2011
Leading aircraft charter provider, Air Charter Service, has been placed 158th in The Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 list published yesterday [16th October].
The list, produced every year since 2004, ranks Britain's top 250 Mid-market private companies by their turnover over the previous year, from published accounts.
It is the first appearance in the league table for the company after previously being earmarked ‘One To Watch’ two years ago. Chairman Chris Leach commented: “This placing is recognition of our hard work and continued growth over the past few years, and we are delighted with our position.”
Last year sales grew by 37% to £227.8 million, and further growth is expected again this year.
2011’s list contains household names such as Manchester United, Aston Martin and Selfridges. The 250 companies named have a total revenue of £71.2 billion, and make up approximately 5% of the UK’s GDP.
ACS competes in 2011 Great River Race
Air Charter Service took part in this year’s Great River Race last weekend (18th September) and, in doing so, raised almost £6,000 for one of the company’s chosen charities, Heal.
The first Great River Race took place 23 years ago and now attracts competitors from all around the world - more than 300 teams took part in the event this year. The race down the River Thames starts at London’s Docklands and finishes 21 miles later in the London suburb of Richmond, passing many famous London landmarks along the way such as the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye and Tower Bridge.
ACS’s 18-strong dragon boat team – named ‘No Plane No Gain!’ – set about the gruelling course starting early in the morning in rainy conditions. The weeks of training paid off as they finished in a respectable time of just under three hours.
The money will go towards the ACS-sponsored I.T. block of the new Heal Paradise village for orphaned children in Thotapally, India.
Air Charter Service helps to rescue stranded vessel
April, 2011
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.
Japanese evacuations become latest in ACS’s relief operations this year
March, 2011
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
Venezuelan President 'tweets' thanks to Spain for ACS aid flight
January, 2011
Air Charter Service last month flew almost 16 tons of humanitarian cargo into the Venezuelan capital of Caracas after the heavy rains and landslides in the country.
The Spanish Government donated the aid – which included food, blankets and mattresses – to assist the affected Venezuelans. The flight originated from Central America, the cargo having come from the Panama-based Spain Humanitarian Logistic Center.
Richard Thompson, Cargo Manager at ACS, said: "Our office in America helped to source the right aircraft for us, and there was a Boeing 727 located in Panama itself. We overcame weather and technical problems to get the aircraft into Caracas and get the essential freight to the people that needed it as quickly as was possible. After the flight landed the aid was quickly distributed to some of the 130,000 victims of the massive floods. The Venezuelans were so grateful that President Hugo Chávez even went on social networking site Twitter to thank the Spanish Government, saying "Gracias por tu esfuerzo", or 'Thank you for your effort'!"
Air Charter Service is heavily involved in relief efforts whenever a disaster occurs anywhere in the world and with their global network of offices, ACS staff are available 24 hours a day, and there is always a charter expert near the affected areas allowing them to react faster than most others.
ACS optimistic about the cargo charter market in 2011
January, 2011
Air Charter Service is optimistic that 2011 will be a strong year in the cargo charter market after having its record ever year in 2010 fuelled by the automotive and oil & gas sectors.
Justin Lancaster, Cargo Sales Director at ACS's London office, said: "2010 was a really strong year for ACS, and I think the air cargo business in general picked up a lot after the downturn. We were particularly strong for a number of reasons though. One of them being that the automotive sector grew very quickly part way through the year and, because of this, the supply chains could not cope. This meant that charters were required every day to support the manufacturers' supply chains. This, in turn, led us to reintroduce our managed fleet of aircraft – starting with the AN-26. Based in Birmingham, it proved an instant hit and has been flying almost non-stop since early October. The sector is still extremely busy and shows no signs of letting up for the foreseeable future. Hopefully we will be adding more aircraft to the managed fleet in the coming year.
Another industry fuelling the cargo charter business at the moment is the oil and gas sector, with the high oil prices stimulating the industry into exploration and development. There is, however, a downside to these price rises. Lancaster explains: "Oil prices are continuously on the rise, which is good in the sense that it is bringing in oil related charters for us but, on the flipside, this also means that the general aviation fuel prices are going up, which obviously leads to a hike in all transportation costs across the board and could affect the business that we get from other sectors".
ACS itself has experienced huge expansion in the last year or so, adding a number of offices in the past 18 months alone – the latest being São Paulo – with plans for more in 2011.
Lancaster continued: "Having our extensive global network of offices has helped us a great deal too, giving us the ability to share the local expertise with other offices and by finding backloads and improving our service and prices to our customers worldwide. Here in the London office we have the largest single trading floor of cargo charter experts in the world."
Air Charter Service grew by around 40% last year and now arranges over 5,000 charters, turning over more than $300million. Its worldwide network of offices spans five continents, combining local knowledge with global buying power.
Air Charter Service Toronto manages large project Nov 2010
Gary Hopkins, Cargo Sales Director or ACS Canada, recently had to contend with the organization of a series of charters for a large mining project to take place on the African island of Madagascar.
The project required four Boeing 747s to transport the cargo from Toronto to Antananarivo – the capital of Madagascar. Hopkins commented: "The cargo was so large and cumbersome, that we had to use nose loading aircraft as the length meant that it would not fit in the side door, so the Boeing 747s were the ideal choice of aircraft.
"The operator, myself and the client coordinated closely to ensure the most efficient use of the four aircraft. The total payload across the charters was almost 400 tons, with some of the pieces close to seven metres in length."
The program of flights was a complete success, and the mining project is now well underway.
Air Charter Service New York charters world's largest aircraft
November, 2009
Ruan Courtney, President ACS New York, recently chartered the huge Antonov 225. The aircraft, the single largest freighter in the World, flew from Edmonton, Alberta to East Midlands Airport in the UK.
The 250 tonne capacity, 6 engined Russian aircraft was chartered to carry a generator across the Atlantic. Courtney flew on board with the cargo and said: “The tricky sized cargo was easily carried by the aircraft and the flight was completed without a hitch.”
“The client was very happy with the way the flight went and was delighted that they had chartered the impressive AN-225”, Courtney added.
For all charter enquiries, please email us at: cargo@usa-aircharter.com
Air Charter Service rescue gig
October, 2009
Michael Kubik of Air Charter Service’s New York operation recently had to act fast to save hundreds of fans’ disappointment. A South American musician was due to play an intimate gig in Philadelphia and his equipment was being transported there on a scheduled airline service from Toledo, Ohio. When the tour company were informed just 6 hours before the show was set to start that the equipment was not on the flight due to a technical fault with the aircraft, everyone panicked.
Michael was called in an attempt to rescue the situation. Kubik’s knowledge and experience meant that he was able to quickly source a local Cessna Caravan aircraft, and he got the wheels in motion straight away. The equipment made it to the venue just 30 minutes before the doors opened, and the tour company said that the musician and fans would be very grateful! She stated “You guys saved the day!”
For all your cargo charter enquiries, please contact us at cargo@usa-aircharter.com
ACS New York utilises global network of offices
September, 2009
Gary Hopkins, cargo manager ACS New York, was presented with a challenge recently when he had to move a piece of oilwell equipment from Houston to Port Harcourt in Nigeria. The difficulty was the size of it - it was over eighteen feet long and weighed 25,000 lbs!
Gary phoned his local contacts, but the client’s budget was too little. Using his years of experience and ACS’s worldwide network of offices, Gary worked with Richard Thompson in the London office. Gary found a scheduled B747 noseloader flying from Houston to Luxembourg. And Richard was able to find a part charter on an MD-11 through his contacts locally in Europe. It was due to depart from Ostend, Belgium to the required destination, so all that was needed was a truck between the two airports. Because the aircraft was going to Port Harcourt anyway, there was no need to wait for traffic rights – which could have been a problem due to Ramadan – and avoided costly royalties.
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