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Air Charter Service’s Dubai office says that it is continuing to experience higher than normal growth so far this year, and attributes much of it to the on-going effects of the political problems in the Middle East.

Dmitriy Korshunov, General Manager of ACS Dubai, said: “We have done three times as much business so far this year compared to last, and a lot of this growth can be put down to the disruptions in the region. In February alone ACS’s worldwide offices arranged charters that evacuated more than 10,000 foreign nationals from Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. This continued into March and even April with our office here being ideally situated to assist coordinating a lot of our other offices’ evacuation flights."

Korshunov continues: “A knock on effect of the unrest has meant that the Emirates, and particularly Dubai, has become an even more attractive holiday destination than usual this year, as the various troubles have put many travellers off visiting the affected countries. Millions of holidaymakers visit Egypt and Tunisia every year, so the UAE will be looking to ‘inherit’ many more of these tourists, some of whom will charter private jets and helicopters.

“Having said that, the market for private jets for business purposes is also on the up in the country - the region as a whole has recovered quicker than many around the world after the economic slump of a couple of years ago, so we are also seeing business travellers booking more and more. The Middle East is an important business hub, and chartering executive jets for travel means that businessmen can optimise their time by travelling to their own schedules.”

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 Dubai office recently flew an urgent luxury car from Qatar across Africa for an important embassy presentation.

ACS received a call to transport the Bentley Brooklands from Doha to Nouakchott in Mauritania. The car was a gift from the country to the Qatari embassy in Mauritania celebrating fifty years since it opened.

ACS swiftly concluded that the AN-12 aircraft would be ideal for the job, as it is a ramp loading aircraft, and the Bentley could simply be driven on. They contacted a number of operators in the region and settled on one based at Doha Airport itself. Once on board, the car was securely fastened and strapped down by its wheels to the aircraft floor.

It was safely delivered to the other side of Africa in Nouackchott less than 72 hours after receiving the initial request. The car was presented in a lavish ceremony, marking the embassy’s 50th anniversary.

Air Charter Service recently flew motors, pipes and exploration equipment to an oil company’s Ethiopia base.

One of ACS Dubai’s good clients called with an urgent request to transport 45 tons of the oilfield equipment to Addis Ababa. It needed to be on site in Ethiopia within 48 hours of the initial phone call, and ACS had to be quick to react.

ACS sourced an Ilyushin 76 based at Fujairah Airport – the ideal aircraft for the operation as it is a ramp loading aircraft and perfect for the long pipes. The cargo was at the client’s Jebel Ali warehouse, so ACS organised the transportation to Fujairah Airport. Once there, loading commenced and the internal cranes of the IL-76 hoisted the cargo on board. The cranes on the aircraft are so strong that they managed to lift in everything - including one of the pipes, despite it weighing almost 10 tons.

The aircraft departed the UAE for Ethiopia, and the cargo was delivered ahead of schedule.

Air Charter Service’s Dubai office was recently called upon to urgently move some large gas equipment from Italy to Abu Dhabi, but encountered various potential hold ups.

The parts, which had been manufactured in Italy, included a 48 tonne gas turbine for a new electric facility in the Emirates’ capital. There was a real lack of aircraft availability due to the amount of cargo aircraft involved in the relief efforts in Haiti at the time. However ACS Dubai, through their contacts, knew of a one way availability on an AN-124 from Europe to the Middle East which tied up perfectly with the customer’s requirements. Because of the fact that it was a one way, ACS was able to negotiate an unbeatable price with the airline on behalf of the customer.

After the enormous turbine was loaded using two large cranes the next challenge was to secure the machinery to the floor of the aircraft. ACS had to have some special shackles custom made for the operation. They were produced within only 4 hours and ready for the operation, and the aircraft departed to schedule.

When the AN-124 landed in Abu Dhabi an ACS representative was on hand to assist with the offloading. Thick fog was descending in the area, and the representative arranged extra manpower to assist with the building of the ramp and the swift offloading of the cargo before the weather conditions hampered the safe operation.

The client was extremely happy with the ACS team’s expertise, and the fact that all potential problems had been foreseen and averted.

Nick Harris of Air Charter Service Dubai’s cargo team has been promoted to Cargo Sales Manager Middle East, taking over from Stuart Smith after his departure to ACS’s New York office.

Nick is in his fourth year with ACS, and has accumulated a wealth of experience on the cargo side of the business working first in the London office before transferring to Dubai in 2009.

Nick said: “This is an exciting time to be taking over from where Stuart left off. Last year we grew a considerable amount here in the Dubai office, and smashed our targets despite the state of the economy. Purely on the cargo side of the business we more than doubled the amount of charters we performed in 2008. A lot of this business has been flying into, and out of, Iraq and Afghanistan - both cargo and passengers”.

Dmitriy Korshunov, Director of ACS Middle East, added: “Nick has proven since he has been here why he was so highly regarded in the London office. His attention to detail and easy manner has endeared him to the Dubai customer base and he has thrived. Whilst we will miss Stuart, I feel that Nick is more than capable of leading the cargo team which we have here.”

Air Charter Service was founded in 1990, and currently turns over US$265 million (AED975 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.

For any charter requirement please contact Nick and his team of experts: cargo@acs.ae

Air Charter Service Dubai has seen massive growth so far in 2009. The entire ACS group is booming despite the economic downturn, and ACS Dubai is leading the way. August, September and October 2009 were record months for Air Charter Service’s Dubai office. The largest increase in ad-hoc charters was witnessed since operations started in the Middle East. ACS has now performed more than 3,000 charters worldwide so far this year – and, in doing so, has overtaken last year’s numbers already.

Dmitriy Korshunov, Director ACS Dubai commented: “While some companies are struggling, we have won new business as customers search for a better deal. We have also retained customers by pre-empting the economic slump and reducing our own rates in order to make money through volume increases rather than profit margin. This strategy has worked as our business is up, and our customers are getting a better deal.”

For any charter requirement please contact our team of experts: cargo@acs.ae

Nick Harris, charter account manager ACS Dubai, recently had to deal with a very heavy, tricky load. He received a request to move a 38 ton rotor from Fujairah to Iraq where it was essential for a power station that was being constructed. After having in depth discussions with various airlines Nick found an IL-76 operator that confirmed that the rotor was loadable subject to an inspection of the piece. The loadmasters visited the site where the rotor had been produced and agreed that, despite its size and weight, it would load on the aircraft. Because of the in depth load study, the piece was on the aircraft within two hours of arriving at the airport. It was loaded using a platform built up on a flatbed trailer.

The customer was very pleased with the operation and the extremely expensive rotor arrived in Iraq in plenty of time.

To contact our Dubai cargo sales department, email us at cargo@acs.ae