Archived news

Michael Guthenburg, charter sales executive ACS New York, recently went beyond the call of duty to help a client. He received a call from a customer that needed to get 250lbs of urgent spare parts to a plant in Idaho to stop a plant going into shutdown.

The parts were originating in North Carolina and needed get there as soon as possible. Michael sourced a Learjet quickly, the only problem being that the remote airport closest to the plant was closed at night time. The next nearest would have added precious hours onto the delivery time. This did not deter Michael however, as he tracked down the airport manager's home telephone number and managed to get him to agree to open up and provide a forklift to offload the cargo.

The client was exceptionally grateful for Michael's help, and the aircraft arrived on time and prevented the costly shutdown.

For all charter enquiries, please email us at: cargo@usa-aircharter.com

In late June, Gary Hopkins, Cargo Sales Director ACS New York, organized an urgent charter for some much needed oil parts down in Colombia. It was a very large load of pipes to be flown out of Houston down to Bogota. Some of the pipes were over 40 foot long, which meant only one aircraft type was up to the job - a noseloader. Gary sourced a Boeing 747.

”With over 30 pipes in total, it was a very tight fit”, explained Hopkins. “Some of the pipes were very long, and weighed over 6,000 lbs. The loading was pretty tricky, and we required two main deck loaders at both airports to support the weight evenly, and slide them into the aircraft”. He added, “We only had a few days to plan the entire job - from initial phone call to completion - but it all went so smoothly”.

To contact the ACS New York cargo department, please email: cargo@usa-aircharter.com

To contact the ACS New York cargo department, please email: cargo@usa-aircharter.com

Michael Guthenberg charter sales account manager at ACS New York received a request to move a 1700lb turbine from Miami to central USA. The client made the request at mid day on Friday and needed to get the turbine to its destination by Monday morning.

Under normal circumstances it would take five days to get the permits needed which would have delayed this urgent charter by a week, which was not an option. Utilizing his strong connections and relationships with the destination country, explaining the urgent nature of the cargo he was able to secure the permits in less than 24 hours. This meant that the Convair turbo prop aircraft was able to carry the rotor to its destination with all of the correct permits in place with no delays.

Working closely with the operator Michael ensured the cargo arrived on time as planned as soon as the airport opened on Monday morning.

Please contact the New York cargo department on:

cargo@usa-aircharter.com

An unsually cold Winter, followed by a quick thaw and heavy rain in Fargo, North Dakota, caused the Red River to swell, threatening to engulf half of the surrounding city and its 90,000 residents.

Michael Kubik, cargo charter broker, received a call with a request to transport supplies for a dam from Des Moines to Fargo. With the cities being only 13 hours apart by road, the majority of the supplies could travel via trucks. However, due to the urgency of the situation, 40,000 lbs needed to go by air as an immediate solution.

The cargo was loaded onto the chartered B727 to start work on the 20 mile levy planned to help protect the city whilst the remaining supplies travelled by road.

Kubik managed to find the most cost effective and fastest solution for the cargo, as it arrived in time to begin the urgent construction.

To contact the ACS New York cargo department, please email: cargo@usa-aircharter.com

When an urgent batch of bricks needed to be transported from Tianjin in China to Baltimore USA Gary Hopkins director of cargo sales in New York was tasked with finding a suitable solution.

The bricks, for a furnace in Baltimore were loaded on to a B-747 freighter and caused quite a stir with the airport loadmasters as it was an unusual commodity on a private charter. This type of cargo would usually go in multiple loads on scheduled services; however this was not an option here due to the urgent nature of the cargo requiring them to arrive together on one aircraft.

The cargo arrived on time once again showing how efficient and cost effective private charters can be allowing the client full control. Reduced quantities of cargo coming from the Far East meant that Gary was also able to secure a cost effective as well as time saving solution for his client.

For all your cargo charter requirements please contact the New York cargo sales team cargo@usa-aircharter.

Whilst everyone was on a break getting ready for Thanks Giving Ruan Courtney President of the New York office was finding a solution to transporting a 37000 lb rotor from Aruba to Miami to be repaired.

With two days to organise the flight, this was made especially difficult due to many people being on vacation over the Thanks Giving holiday. Ruan sourced an AN-12 a versatile rear loading aircraft making in an ideal choice for this outsized piece of cargo. This however as a complicated item to load mainly because the onboard winch was unable to pull the weight of the rotor, pulleys within the aircraft looped cables around the back of the aircraft and back out of the aircraft to an additional truck on the ramp was used to pull the piece in. Despite this the large rotor was loaded without any problems and a new ACS record was set as the heaviest single piece that anyone at ACS has ever loaded into an AN-12.

ACS’ cargo account managers work with loadmasters to ensure that any cargo that is difficult to load has a solution which ensures the quickest possible loading time especially as most cargo charters are time sensitive.

To contact a New York cargo account manager email cargo@usa-aircharter.com

ACS was approached by a repeat customer, with a request to fly a part for their generator from UAE via Eastern Europe to the Caribbean. There was three weeks to plan this flight due to the lead time for the manufacturers

The part was a 17 ton rotor, part of an electronic generator; as soon as the new part was manufactured it had to be flown in to repair the broken generator. The sheer weight of the part meant that the internal cranes of the IL-76 could not be used as they have a maximum capacity of 10 tons.  A combination of external cranes, flat bed trucks with modified raised platforms that were the same height as the IL-76, flat pallets and rollers were used to load and off load the 17 ton cargo.

An extensive knowledge of many types of cargo ensured that despite not being able to load and off load the aircraft by conventional methods did not present a problem. The cargo was loaded, off loaded and arrived at its Caribbean destination ensuring the part reached its destination in the shortest possible time.

Contact Ruan Courtney cargo@aircharter-usa.com

 When the owners of a $1.2 million yacht needed repairs it was down to Mike Bulzomi from ACS New York to get two mechanics and parts from Miami to the Bahamas where the yacht was docked. A Cessna 208 was used to take the mechanics and everything needed for the repairs down to the Bahamas. 

There was a tight time schedule that had to be met as the owners of the yacht could not afford to have their boat immobilized for much longer. Air Charter Service was able to find an aircraft in a perfect position, which enabled the mechanics to fix the yacht ahead of schedule ensuring that the owners of the yacht were able to get back on to their schedule, and return the mechanics home in time for dinner.   

Contact Mike Bulzomi: cargo@usa-aircharter.com

 When the demand for an aircraft outstrips its availability ACS understand that constant monitoring of the situation can be the only way to still achieve results. 

 This was the situation faced by the ACS team in New York when a client urgently required the use of the highly popular AN-124 cargo carrier to transport 60 tonnes of oil equipment the 7,000 miles between Houston, USA and Adana, Turkey.  When there was no immediate availability, Michael Guthenberg, a broker at ACS New York, began constantly checking every few hours for the next three weeks for an opening.  

On the afternoon of Thursday, 22nd May, Michael spotted a rare opportunity to contract the AN-124 and acted immediately.  It took the team just four hours to gain confirmation from their customer in the US and to organise with the office in Dubai for a party to oversee offloading of the cargo at its final destination in Turkey.  This had to be completed by Thursday night in the USA-despite the significant time difference in Dubai (eight hours ahead), in order to apply for traffic rights for the aircraft on the Friday morning.  With the ball firmly set in motion, the cargo was transported to Houston airport by Saturday morning where the AN-124 was already waiting to be loaded.  In total, it had taken the two teams less than 48 hours to orchestrate the transfer.

The customer said:                                                                                                                             “Whereas all other companies I approached just told me it simply would not be possible to transfer the cargo until June, ACS kept a vigilant look-out for my interests.  The result was that when a limited opportunity came up we were able to act quickly and therefore secure an earlier flight.  This level of attention to customer care meant ACS were able to offer me the highest level of service.”

Contact: Michael Guthenberg, New York based ACS broker and team at cargo@usa-aircharter.com 

When a longstanding client made an urgent request for the immediate transportation of oil refinery equipment, ACS responded with an innovative solution. 

The client, who with ACS’ help had previously chartered flights from destinations across the USA and UK, urgently needed to fly a small part from Houston Hobby in the USA to Port of Spain in Trinidad. 

The smallest freighter aircraft would take between eight and nine hours to deliver the time sensitive cargo, so the brokers at ACS suggested the use of an Astra SPX, a passenger aircraft, to dramatically cut the airtime.

Such a move is typical of ACS’s pro-active attitude towards finding new solutions and customer care. 

Ruan Courtney, Broker at ACS New York, commented:“Our client was very happy with the solution.  He said that it went very smoothly even given the short setup time.”

 The customer added: “but with ACS it always goes smoothly.”

The call was made at 1pm and the flight departed at 5pm that very same day.  The operation included a crew rest of the aircraft in Trinidad before returning to Houston with the damaged oil refinery part which was to be sent to the manufacturer.

Contact: Ruan Courtney, New York based ACS Broker and team at

cargo@usa-aircharter.com

Floods affecting nearly 25,000 families hit parts of Bolivia last month causing the country’s President Evo Morales to declare a state of emergency after weeks of heavy rain; this has been caused by the climatic phenomenon known as La Niña, and has devastated several parts of the country.

Air Charter Service (ACS) one of the leading operators in cargo and passenger air chartering, received an urgent call from a Spanish based relief agency to carry 10 tonnes of much needed water purification equipment, medical kits, tents, blankets and mosquito nets from Madrid Torrijon Airport on the 12th February 2008, just three days after the agency approached ACS.

The 70cbm cargo was expertly loaded into the AN-12 with only a 90cbm volume, resulting in the on site load master remarking how ‘our skills at Tetris have come in very handy today’.

Richard Thompson, Cargo Charter Analyst, ACS said:
“This is the fourth charter that we have successfully operated for this client and ACS’ dedicated broker relationships and the added bonus of the team being fluent in Spanish certainly helps put our customers’ minds at rest. Speaking the language also helped me to secure landing rights and permits with the minimum of delay.”

ACS works to assist governments, charities and aid agencies when ‘every minute counts’ in saving lives. Being very aware of the urgency required in these situations, as a minimum requirement many of the charter brokers at ACS are bi- or tri-lingual. They have supported relief efforts into countries including Algeria, Indonesia, Afghanistan, and Sudan and operated a variety of nearly 500 flights in the aftermath of the catastrophic tsunami which struck Thailand on December 26th 2004.

Contact Richard Thompson, Cargo Charter Analyst and team at london@aircharter.co.uk

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.

For all charter enquiries, please email us at: cargo@usa-aircharter.com

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

Sometimes the strength of an organisation lies in its commitment to detail and its quality of foresight. This proved truer than usual when Air Charter Service were asked to carry two 31 tonne, four metre high transformers nearly 3,000 miles from the UK to Iran.

Securing a massive Antonov-124 Ruslan, ACS had to plan carefully to ensure that the load could be properly fitted and supported.

Ben Dinsdale, London based Cargo Charter Analyst, describes how, realising that the weight of the transformers was such that they would be too heavy to be supported during the flight on the original bases, “We organised a visit to the factory the week before the flight in order to advise how to spread the weight efficiently by altering the base for optimum loading onto the AN-124.”

Contact Ben Dinsdale, London based Cargo Charter Analyst and team london@aircharter.co.uk

Air Charter Service (ACS) one of the leading names in cargo and passenger air chartering, arranged for an Antonov-12 to carry seven tonnes of urgently needed relief cargo from Spain to Mexico and South America in the aftermath of Hurricane Noel which left widespread flooding and mudslides.

Richard Thompson, Cargo Charter Analyst at ACS confirmed the flight on the evening of Friday 2nd November for a 4th November departure. The flight was for the Spanish Government so using his fluent Spanish, Richard was able to negotiate the permits for each country, not an inconsiderable task due to the long duration of the flight and the two drop stops in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The AN-12 carried seven tonnes of medical kits, two water purifying plants, blankets and jerry cans to the effected regions.

Richard Thompson, Cargo Charter Analyst, ACS said:
“The challenge with this flight was the route – the 26 hour flight stopped in two different countries on the way and with only 24 hours notice we had to work hard to finalise everything.”

ACS is called in to assist governments, charities and aid agencies when ‘every minute counts’ in saving lives. Being very aware of the urgency required in these situations, as a minimum requirement many of the charter brokers at ACS are bi- or tri-lingual. They have supported relief efforts into countries including Algeria, Indonesia, Afghanistan, and Sudan and operated a variety of nearly 500 flights in the aftermath of the catastrophic tsunami which struck Thailand on December 26th 2004.

Contact Richard Thompson, Cargo Charter Analyst and team at london@aircharter.co.uk

Enormous ocean freighters are generally the preferred mode of transport when carrying 200 tonnes of oil drilling equipment from the UK out to the Middle East. However, when the production of 15 massive ‘Christmas tree’, component parts of oil drilling equipment required by an Egyptian oil development was delayed back in November the shippers involved turned to Air Charter Service (ACS) who chartered two mighty AN-124 aircraft.

ACS’ key qualities as an international organization with a high level of professionalism on the ground were vital. The difficulties the Houston-based shipper had in arranging transport from the UK to Egypt were overcome by the smooth and easy interactions of ACS’ New York and East Midlands offices.

However it was the skills of ACS employees on site which proved critical. Ruan Courtney, President and Charter Sales Manager ACS New York, emphasised the importance of the “experience of Ralph Cutting our EMA based Operations Manager, in ensuring that any problems the shipper experienced prior to loading – such as the cargo not being able to fit through the airport gates! - were dealt with efficiently and well in advance of the flight.”

Yet another example of ACS’ ability to offer quick and effective logistics solutions to their customers.

Contact: Ruan Courtney, President and Charter Sales Manager ACS New York and team cargo@aircharterserviceusa.com

Air Charter Service plc, the private air charter specialist is delighted to announce that it is to base an Antonov 26 cargo plane at Châteauroux-Déols "Marcel Dassault" Airport, situated 220 km south of Paris. This is the first time that an aircraft has been based at the facility.

Air Charter Service is London-based, with other permanent offices in New York, Dubai and Moscow. Globally recognised as a leading name in passenger and cargo air chartering, it operates around 2,700 flights annually. The company was established in 1990 and provides a complete turnkey service for anyone needing to charter an aircraft on a one-off basis, arranging all aspects of a charter from fully crewed aircraft to ground transfers. ACS monitors real-time movements of more than 50,000 aircraft worldwide and tracks data on airports, fuel prices, legislation and routings.

Justin Bowman, ACS commercial director, comments,

“Châteauroux is perfectly placed for the heartland of the French automotive industry, and basing the Antonov 26 there means that we can better serve the needs of our clients in the auto industry, co-ordinating “just-in-time” deliveries of parts.”

Air Charter Service (ACS) has been a specialist in outsize cargo transport for the past 15 years. Recently they were able to demonstrate just how accomplished they are in this area of expertise when they assisted one of their clients, a major freight forwarder in Norway, to transport outsized cargo across the world.

ACS were contacted when a leading Norwegian oil company urgently needed to transport some vital oil well equipment from Osaka, Japan to Oslo, Norway. The cargo included 124 oil pipes, all 12 metres long, 30 centimetres in diameter and weighing 110 tonnes in total.

Experienced cargo broker Andy Holmes located an Antonov 124 to transport the cargo in no time. Experience is often the key when dealing with air cargo, and in this case it proved vital as Andy was able to obtain Japanese traffic rights within ten days, thereby meeting the client’s deadline for delivery.

ACS prides itself on quality service with great flexibility to suit the customers’ needs. Once again ACS was able to deliver a full service on an international route and leave another one of their valued clients satisfied.

According to local myth, there is a pub in Shropshire where Eric Clapton used to stroll in occasionally and ask if the band would let him join them for a few numbers. That was in the late 1970s; today, any performance by the legendary artist requires meticulous management over an extended period. To illustrate the scale of a Clapton event, his recent packed-stadium tour of the Far East involved the movement of around 25 tons of band and stage equipment between venues.

Eric had not played in Singapore since 1990 — and it was only his second Bangkok performance in 30 years — and audience expectations were high, so every aspect of the tour had to be perfectly handled. Ian Haynes, director of Rock It cargo, turned to Air Charter Service to guarantee that all of his equipment would always be in the right place at the right time. The tour entailed five performances, in five countries, within a nine-day period in January.

Justin Bowman, Air Charter Service’s worldwide commercial director, arranged an Airbus A-300 to carry the vital cargo across thousands of miles: from Bangkok to Singapore, then to Hong Kong, onwards to Shanghai and finally to Seoul. As with any such itinerary, details had to be changed along the way, but ACS always rose to the occasion.