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Press Release
Issued by Air Charter Service.
September 17, 2018
Back in 2008, the leading aircraft charter specialist, Air Charter Service, opened an office in Hong Kong, being its first presence in the Asia Pacific region. Now celebrating its 10th anniversary, which is a remarkable landmark for any business, the office is proud to not only be witnessing memorable aviation incidents but taking part in each of them.
Stephen Fernandez, ACS regional director of Asia Pacific, said: “ACS Hong Kong moved into its first office which originally consisted of a cargo charter division and a private charter division. Our office has undergone impressive growth together with the robust economic climate in the region. Now we are a strong team with an additional group charter division, an onboard courier division and with IT, marketing, office admin and accounting departments.
“We have arranged more than 3,000 charters over the past ten years. Every charter comes with a story. All linked with events happening in the region. We feel honored to partake in each of them and proud to provide the charter solutions to those in need.”
“Recalling the memorable flights that we have handled, top of the list are the relief charters,” said Joseph Tam, cargo director APAC region. “We helped to arrange seven Ilyushin 76s with emergency aid to Padang following the earthquake in Indonesia in 2009. We were also entrusted to deliver the humanitarian aid with an Antonov 12 to those who suffered from Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines in 2013.”
“We were also assigned to evacuate almost 1,000 executives and their family members of a telecommunications company in 2011 after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.” added James Royds-Jones, executive jet director APAC region. “We were also asked for charter solutions during the European ash clouds in 2010 and 2014, as well as the recent Mount Agung volcano eruption in Bali.”
Other interesting flights are those related to animal transportation. “We delivered sharks and fishes from Sanya to Sochi and carried pigs from Singapore to Malaysia, which is rather rare and unusual for a Muslim country,” Joseph continued, “We have brought the first Ilyushin 96 to Australia in 2010 and we flew an Antonov 124 from Tianjin to Burkina Faso (a landlocked country in West Africa) in 2014.”
“Talking about special destinations, we flew a Challenger 605 to the Pacific island of Tinian direct from Hong Kong, making it the first international flight into the island's airport,” James added. “The exciting charter stories for the passenger side are flying the celebrities in and out of the region. Bringing famous overseas singers to Asia for their world tours, or arranging local movie stars' intra-Asia travel have occurred numerous time throughout the last ten years. Special charters are the ones flying royal families and high rank government officials for their VIP trips, fulfilling their challenging requirements.
“Looking at the national level, we carried an Asian Philharmonic Orchestra to Europe for their showcase in six cities in 2017. We also brought in English Premier League teams for their pre-season matches in the region and the Asian national football teams to overseas matches recently.”
These milestones, as well as the office's day to day work, have created an unbeatable reputation in the region. Looking forward, more fascinating events are on the horizon: Beijing's new airport will be the biggest airport in the world in 2019, meaning that more aircraft will be available in Asia Pacific. Air Charter Service Hong Kong is ambitious and positive that all of its departments will go from strength to strength, together with the favorable business environment.
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