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Lyndee du Toit, Director of ACS Johannesburg, received a request that was slightly out of the ordinary recently – to fly a small propeller aircraft around and for it to be filmed.
 
Lyndee explains: “A production company called us saying that they needed to film an aircraft for a television advertisement due to be shown over here in the near future.”

The shoot took place in Cape Town, and Lyndee fly there to attend the briefing with the CAA, who were to oversee the project. She also met up with the producers and film crew involved to work out exactly how the operation should be done.

Lyndee added: “The Embraer 110 [Bandeirante] aircraft was ideal for the job – the only thing was that it was deemed ‘too clean’ for the commercial, so we had to spray it in order to look older and more rustic!” 

For any charter enquiries at all, please contact us on: sales@aircharter.co.za

Lyndee du Toit, Director of ACS South Africa, used her dangerous goods experience once again to ensure an extremely urgent cargo shipment got to its final destination on time – in fact, it arrived ahead of schedule.

Lyndee received the call on a Wednesday evening – the customer needed to get the goods from Cape Town to Pemba, Mozambique, as soon as possible. Lyndee found a suitable Embraer 110 within half an hour of the initial call and, once details and contracts had been arranged, the aircraft prepared to position into Cape Town first thing in the morning. Lyndee used her contacts and worked with the operator overnight to obtain the various tricky overflight and landing permissions. The following morning the aircraft was prepared and ready before the shipment itself, as the crew waited for the complicated customs procedures to be completed.

The aircraft set off with little over a ton of payload shortly afterwards and made its way, via a fuel stop in Gaberone, Botswana, to Pemba and then on to its final destination at an oil and gas works in Mozambique where the project workers were waiting for it. Lyndee commented that the client was extremely pleased as the flight ‘could not have gone any smoother’, and the aircraft arrived ahead of the proposed schedule.

Air Charter Service South Africa not only offers cargo charters, but also private jet charters, as well as commercial airliners. For your dangerous goods shipments, or any charter enquiries at all, please contact us on: sales@aircharter.co.za

Recently Air Charter Service’s South African office received a call to transport a Mil Mi-8 helicopter up to Afghanistan. The aircraft is the world’s most produced helicopter, having first been introduced more than forty years ago.

Lyndee du Toit, Sales Director of ACS Johannesburg, knew from her years of experience in the industry, that an IL-76 was the correct aircraft for the job. The flight was to depart from Cape Town and deliver the helicopter into Kabul. The only minor problem encountered was with slots into Kabul which are very restricted. The airline overcame this however, and the aircraft arrived safely at its destination.

For any cargo charter enquiries, please contact us on: sales@aircharter.co.za

Lyndee du Toit, Sales Director ACS South Africa, was called into urgent action when she had to transport some unusual vehicles to Saudi Arabia as soon as possible. They needed to be moved from Johannesburg, and be in Riyadh within 4 days for testing, and there was no alternative other than a charter.

Using her local knowledge, Lyndee quickly sourced an IL-76 that was ideal for the armoured personnel carriers. Good cooperation between ACS, the airline and the relative authorities meant that the traffic rights were obtained swiftly, and the aircraft departed less than 3 days after the initial call. “The client was very happy with our solution”, commented du Toit. “The vehicles arrived earlier than we had promised, and everything about the job went smoothly” she added.

For any cargo charter enquiries, please contact us on: sales@aircharter.co.za

Air Charter Service continues its global expansion with the opening of the company’s first African office in Johannesburg, South Africa. Offering both passenger and cargo services, ACS South Africa can cater for any charter requirement, always finding the right aircraft for the job.

Heading up the African operation is Lyndee du Toit, who brings with her 16 years of experience in the charter business. An office on the African continent has been seen as essential to the company’s global expansions for a number of years.

ACS managing director, Tony Bauckham said, “This is an exciting new development for the company. Not only will this allow us to better serve clients on the African continent, but having a local presence will allow us to negotiate better rates with local operators and therefore offer savings to our existing client base for flights in the region.”

ACS South Africa general manager Lyndee du Toit said, “Having spent a month working in ACS’s London office we have developed some fantastic procedures for working with ACS’s worldwide network of offices. These procedures will allow us to offer global solutions to local clients. Within a short time of opening we have already seen these systems work successfully culminating in the operation of a number of successful charters”.

Email Lyndee and the team on: sales@aircharter.co.za

A natural disaster can hit any part of the world at any time, you can’t predict where or when it will happen but in ACS’ line of work it has to be ready for when it does.

The air charter industry is an integral part of the logistics chain necessary for the execution of the worldwide relief efforts undertaken by governments, NGOs, Charities and private organisations. The mobilisation of aircraft into Burma carrying relief shipments for the cyclone victims and into China transporting specialist earthquake equipment and teams once again showed just how effective air support can be. Time is of the essence in these circumstances and the time saved by flying the aid into the worst effected areas protected lives and got medical and food aid to where it was needed quickly and effectively.

There are few companies better placed to answer an urgent call under these circumstances than Air Charter Service (ACS), the international air charter broker which monitors the movement of over 50,000 aircraft worldwide at any given time, to ensure that the best placed aircraft can be mobilised in the shortest possible time. ACS has a long and proud history in providing humanitarian aid charters to disasters around the globe.

Justin Bowman, Group Commercial Director at ACS commented “We were able to assist aid agencies from all over the world handling the relief efforts for cyclone hit Burma. We operated 37 cargo flights to the region organised by our London, Dubai and New York offices, carrying tonnes of food, tents, blankets, mosquito nets, water purification tablets, flat bottom boats with outboard engines, medical kits and jerry cans.” The worldwide ACS team mobilised a wide range of cargo aircraft to the region, these included A300s, DC8s, IL-76s and AN12s.

In addition to sourcing cargo aircraft from outside suppliers for charter requirements, ACS also has several aircraft that are on long term lease and which are under its commercial control. In addition ACS provides operational support for these aircraft from their base at East Midlands airport. Most importantly, the managed fleet can be airborne within 90 minutes of ACS receiving confirmation of a flight.

With established offices in London, New York, Dubai, Moscow and Hong Kong, ACS assists Governmental organisations, non-governmental relief organisations, their extensive work has directly lead to ACS  being appointed as the nominated broker to the British Government Department For International Development (DFID) and to many other relief organisations.

Contact one of our cargo sales team to find out about all our relief capabilities

CargoOnlineEnquiries@aircharter.co.uk

When an oil refinery in the North of England urgently required a spare part to be replaced, they turned to ACS to tackle the crisis immediately.

The call was made mid-morning on Friday 29th February and by that afternoon the flight was confirmed. The aircraft, a long-haul cargo carrier which needed to traverse the 5,000 miles between Houston, USA and Doncaster, UK to deliver the part, arrived by 1:30 pm the next day: less than 24 hours after the client confirmed.

The speed and efficiency of the service provided by ACS is essential when the cost of non-production far outweighs the cost of retrieving the part.

Richard Thompson, a Cargo Charter Analyst at ACS London, explains:

“The crew of the B747 (100,000kgs capacity freighter) must have thought there was a mistake when they were presented with a 1,200kg pallet for loading. When you’re a company potentially losing around $1,000,000USD per day, we understand that speed outweighs the cost. Under all circumstances ACS will, of course, search out the most cost effective and appropriate aircraft for our customers, however, when time is of the essence exceptional solutions such as this may be used.”

Contact: Richard Thompson, London based Cargo Charter Analyst and team London@aircharter.co.uk

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

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