Land mine clearance vehicles for Sudan

Air Charter Service’s Richard Thompson has arranged the charter of a IL-76 loaded with land mine clearance machinery for southern Sudan where large humanitarian and regeneration programmes are currently underway.

An organisation involved in the project contacted Air Charter Service to organise the transportation of a land mine clearance vehicle, Land Rovers and trailers from the north of France to Juba, Sudan.

Richard Thompson arranged for the 30 tonne load to be flown on an IL-76 aircraft which is well suited for the transportation of vehicles and outsize machinery. The charter ran smoothly, taking 10 hours to reach its destination including a fuel stop in Libya.

The equipment will be put to immediate use clearing agricultural land littered with mines which are a major problem for the local population.

The US-based agency, Human Rights Watch estimate that there are 110 million mines are spread in 64 counties world wide. Landmines maim or kill between 1,000 to 2,000 people per month, most of whom are innocent civilians.

For more information on transporting machinery please visit http://www.aircharter.co.uk/cargo_uk.htm

Air Charter Service move to new offices in Moscow

Air Charter Service’s Moscow office has relocated to larger new offices in the city to further facilitate the growth that the company has experienced in recent years. The new office will allow for the addition of further brokers to the team.

The new office is situated in a prestigious complex on the carriageway dubbed ‘Putin Road’ due to the fact many of Russia’s business elite and ministers use the road to travel to work each day from the west of the city.

The office is also conveniently located on the blue metro line, between Krylaskoe and Molodezhnaya stations.

For the full address and contact details visit www.aircharter.ru

Sculpting the perfect AN-124 charter

Air Charter Service’s Vladimir Romanenko was recently delighted to provide the flight from St Petersburg to Tblisi for a statue created by the great sculptor Zurab Tsereteli. The contract for this charter was signed by Zurab himself in his gallery in the center of Moscow.

The statue was specially commissioned to be the centerpiece of 30m high monument to the “History of Georgia” in the centre of Tblisi.

The initial enquiry was placed in March, at which time the ornate statue was still in the early stages of construction. Vladimir Romanenko was able to show his own attention to detail and worked to create the perfect charter for this unusual cargo.

At 6 metres wide and 3.8 metres high the dimensions of statue and paddock meant that an AN-124 aircraft would need to be utilized for the charter.

On the day of the charter the load arriving by truck proved so wide that the old airport gates were opened for the first time in years to allow the statue through.

The delivery and loading process took less than 3 hours due to the advance preparations made. The charter was conducted without any delay and was met in Tbilisi by the sculptor himself.

The statue is due to be unveiled in Tblisi’s Freedom Square at a ceremony on the 29th May (Georgia’s Independence Day).

Visit www.aircharter.ru for more information on outsize charters.

Drilling equipment to Ethiopia

Air Charter Service Moscow has assisted an Italian construction company with an IL-76 charter for two heavy duty drilling vehicles for a works project in East Africa.

The equipment had been produced on the Adriatic coast and was urgently required by the construction team based out of Addis Ababa. No western aircraft was able to carry the vehicles each measuring over 3 metres in both height and width, and weighing around 16 tonnes.

Vladimir Romanenko identified the IL-76 as the most suitable for transporting the drilling equipment and immediately bore his way into getting the permissions needed to make the charter happen to schedule.

Noise restrictions eliminated the possibility of Italian departure and time was too tight to carry the cargo to Bratislava. However, Vladimir negotiated the use of Pula airport, receiving the necessary permissions from the CAA of Croatia.

The successful operation was completed in less than 24 hours, including trucking to Pula, customs clearance and the charter flight.

See http://www.aircharter.co.uk/heavy_outsize_air_cargo.htm for details of outsize charters.

Air Charter Service continue pivotal aid flight role

Air Charter Service are a company with a long and proud history in providing humanitarian aid relief charters for disasters around the globe. The first months of 2006 have seen both the continuation of ongoing work in areas such as Pakistan well as the addition of other aid flight projects.

Most recently Richard Thompson of Air Charter Service had been able to provide charter flights to flood hit Algeria on behalf of Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional (AECI).

Richard was able to quickly arrange two AN-12 charters to transport temporary shelter and emergency food rations to victims of the torrential which has brought devastation to large areas. The flights flew from the Madrid Torrejon military base to Tindouf Military airport in Algeria.

More information on humanitarian charters can be found at http://www.aircharter.co.uk/relief_flights.htm