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Air Charter Service, one of the world’s leading names in cargo aircraft charters, has seen steady growth in the past 12 months, despite global economic uncertainty.

The company’s New York office in particular has flourished, with an increase in contracted charters of more than forty per cent over the last year. Ruan Courtney, President ACS North America, put it down to his team: “We have a strong, highly skilled and experienced team of account managers here, whose knowledge and personal service levels have proved invaluable this past year or so. Whilst the market in general has been filled with stories of doom and gloom, we’ve experienced substantial growth.”

In the first three months of 2010 alone numbers were up three-fold on 2009’s figures. Courtney commented: “We had a peak season flurry of Far East to USA business in the last quarter of 2009, but the number of charters has stayed high into the start of this year, right up to Chinese New Year. This growth in 2009 enabled us to open our new Toronto office in February which has started to make significant profits already under the guidance of Gary Hopkins.

“Another reason for the busy start to year has been the wake of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. We have sent many charters to the region carrying aid for the victims, and continue to do so. The ash cloud in Northern Europe also affected business, as many scheduled carriers had a backlog of cargo, which meant more people needed to charter to save their goods being affected by a knock on delay.”

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

Air Charter Service’s New York operation managed to get some highly sensitive construction material on site in Riga, Latvia despite atrocious weather conditions on the U.S. East Coast.

Ruan Courtney, President of ACS New York, was asked to transport 65 tons of building equipment from JFK Airport to the Baltic State. There were very particular handling requirements and the cargo needed to be escorted by three cargo attendants, to prevent damage or tampering, for the duration of the flight.

Everything was running smoothly until the actual day of the flight, when New York was hit by a major snowstorm. The area of low pressure knocked out power across the region and caused most flights at both JFK and Newark Airports to be cancelled completely.

Despite the blizzard the sensitive cargo was loaded carefully, but efficiently. On the morning of the charter no other flights had left JFK, but ACS and the operator worked tirelessly to ensure the aircraft was de-iced and acquired a slot from Air Traffic Control who allowed it to leave with the minimum of delays.

The customer was extremely grateful and praised the expertise and professionalism of Air Charter Service and the aircraft’s crew.

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

As ACS heads into 2010 following its record year, their New York office welcomes a new Cargo Sales Director. Stuart Smith, formerly holding the same role in the company’s Dubai operation, takes over from Gary Hopkins as he moves to Toronto to head up the new office there.

Smith joined Air Charter Service’s London office in 2005, and quickly gained a great knowledge of the industry enabling him to move to the U.A.E. to help with the newly formed Dubai office in 2006. Smith went from strength to strength and within a couple of years became Cargo Sales Director. In 2009 Smith was in charge of the Dubai cargo department as it more than doubled 2008’s figures despite the economic downturn.

Ruan Courtney, President of ACS New York, said: “Whilst we’re sorry to lose Gary, Stuart is a more than qualified replacement. Gary will thrive in the newly founded Toronto office, and Stuart can pick up where he left off. We’ve had our record year here in the New York office as well and we look forward to continuing to prosper in 2010”.

Smith added: “This is an exciting new challenge for me in what is a very different market to that of Dubai. But the tough negotiations with operators in the Middle East and the level of service required stands me in good stead and means that I will be able to gain my new clients the best possible prices and offer a genuinely good service.

Air Charter Service was founded in 1990, and currently turns over US$265 million annually and it operates around 4000 charters per year on all types of aircraft ranging from cargo charters, to private jet charters, to commercial airliners. ACS’s offerings and service have proved so popular, that in a market considered to be shrinking by about 25% in 2009, ACS grew by around 30%, in both terms of numbers of charters, as well as overall revenue.

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

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

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

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