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Air Charter Service - Specialists in providing all types of aircraft for your private air charter requirements

Specialists in providing all types of aircraft for your private charter requirements...

Current news

» February, 2012 - Celebrating Chinese New Year in Style

» January, 2012 - Air Charter Service raises significant amount for charity

» December, 2011 - ACS launches new Asian empty-legs website

» November, 2011 - Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 2011

» October, 2011 - Half year results 2011

» July, 2011 - First of many charters to world's newest country

» March, 2011 - Japanese evacuations become latest in ACS’s relief operations this year

» January, 2011 - ACS Hong Kong moves to larger office

» July, 2010 - Air Charter Service makes sure football fans didn't miss semi final

» April, 2010 - ACS Hong Kong has a great first quarter

» December, 2009 - ACS Hong Kong utilises local knowledge for flight into India

» September, 2009 - ACS opens in Japan


Celebrating Chinese New Year in Style February, 2012 Entering the ‘Year of the Dragon’, many enjoyed the subsequent festivities, but a handful celebrated more extravagantly than others, reports Air Charter Service. “Some of our clients have decided to spend the New Year abroad with their families and subsequently asked us to provide them with private jet charters to get them there”, commented Gavin Copus, Asia Pacific CEO of ACS, a company many wealthy Chinese entrust to provide them with luxury air travel. Many of ACS’s customers flew all over the world to celebrate, some as far afield as Havana, Cuba. “It is of the utmost importance to our clients that we provide their families with the most comfortable experience possible, especially in regards to elderly relatives who will be travelling with them. Scheduled services simply cannot offer the same level of comfort and efficiency that a private aircraft can; waiting in crowded terminals, boarding busy commercial airliners and catching connecting flights is not suitable for senior citizens,” explains Copus. “Travelling together on a chartered jet also gives families the chance to spend more valuable time together; one family recently celebrated a birthday while in the air – we arranged for birthday cake, ice-cream and other specialist catering to be provided for them during their flight,” he concluded.

Air Charter Service raises significant amount for charity January, 2012 In 2011 leading aircraft charter firm Air Charter Service raised more than $77,000 for their chosen charities; HEAL, Cancer Research UK, The Shooting Star Children’s Hospice, The Willow foundation and The International Youth Arts Foundation. ACS supports a selection of chosen causes, with a dedicated committee helping to organise an array of fund-raising events. All the money raised by their staff is matched by the company, doubling the total amount. One of the charities that benefitted from the money raised, HEAL, provide shelter, support, education and healthcare to some of the world’s poorest children, with the aim of helping 10,000 young people ‘escape the poverty trap’ by 2015. One of the highlights of the company’s fundraising year took place in September: an 18-strong ACS dragonboat team – named ‘No Plane No Gain!’ – took part in this year’s Great River Race down the Thames, completing the gruelling 21-mile course in a respectable time of just under three hours, raising $9,000 for HEAL along the way. Among a host of other charity functions, a raffle was held at ACS’s European staff’s Christmas party at The Aviator Hotel, Farnborough, garnering more than $21,000 for their chosen causes. ACS funded the building of an IT block within HEAL’s new self-sustaining village for orphans in Thotapally, India. Chris and Tina Leach, respectively ACS Chairman and Company Secretary, recently visited the site and described what they saw as “absolutely inspiring”. Looking forward to 2012, Tina, who heads up the ACS charity committee, is confident that ACS can provide yet more support to HEAL and the company’s other charities: “We are immensely proud that we can contribute to such wonderful causes. 2011 was a brilliant year for ACS, but I believe we can do even more this year.” You can watch a video of Chris and Tina’s visit to the Paradise Village by visiting the company’s YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/ACSPLC.

ACS launches new Asian empty-legs website December, 2011 Air Charter Service, a world-leading provider of aircraft charters, has launched an Asian edition of its ‘Empty Legs’ website (www.emptylegsasia.com), a service designed to significantly cut the cost of chartering private aircraft. It is estimated that 30 -40% of private jet flights are operated without passengers as they position to their next task. Although these empty legs can offer less flexibility than a normal charter, they can be booked for a fraction of the cost, up to 75% cheaper. Gavin Copus, ACS’s Asia Pacific CEO, commented, “We find that many of our clients use ‘Empty Legs’ for last minute holidays or link them in with existing travel arrangements. They have for a long time been popular in the West, but despite the recent surge in popularity of private jet travel in Asia, are relatively unheard of in the East, until now”. Copus continued, “The website provides a platform for us to communicate the availability of our ‘Empty Legs’ to our clients, but it’s not just our customers who can benefit from this service. Local operators now have the opportunity to promote their ’Empty Legs’ through our website, maximizing the opportunity that someone will book it. It truly is a win-win situation.” Anyone can sign up for ACS’s weekly emails detailing available ‘Empty Legs’ in Asia, or alternatively visit the website which is continuously updated.

Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 2011 November, 2011 Leading aircraft charter provider, Air Charter Service, has been placed 158th in The Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 list published yesterday [16th October]. The list, produced every year since 2004, ranks Britain's top 250 Mid-market private companies by their turnover over the previous year, from published accounts. It is the first appearance in the league table for the company after previously being earmarked ‘One To Watch’ two years ago. Chairman Chris Leach commented: “This placing is recognition of our hard work and continued growth over the past few years, and we are delighted with our position.” Last year sales grew by 37% to £227.8 million, and further growth is expected again this year. 2011’s list contains household names such as Manchester United, Aston Martin and Selfridges. The 250 companies named have a total revenue of £71.2 billion, and make up approximately 5% of the UK’s GDP.

Half year results 2011 October, 2011 Air Charter Service has reported strong growth in the first half of 2011, with revenue increasing by 20%. And the company has arranged almost 3,000 charter contracts in the first six months of the year – an increase of around 20% on the previous year. ACS Chairman Chris Leach commented: “All three of our divisions; Cargo, Commercial Jets and Executive Jets, showed very strong growth last year, and our international operations all performed well. This year our passenger business has grown more rapidly than the cargo side and now accounts for more than 50% of total revenue for the first time in our history. Our Commercial Jets department results for the first half of the year are up almost 150%. “The group continues to work with a variety of governments, corporate companies and high net worth individuals worldwide. We organised a huge number of evacuation flights for expatriates from Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Japan in the first few months of this year, but the underlying growth is still strong, despite the recession.” The company currently has fourteen offices spanning five continents, providing an impressive global network. Leach added: “Our ever expanding number of offices is allowing us to offer innovative solutions to clients worldwide. We have local knowledge on a global scale and customers recognise the benefits of using us, rather than a company without such an extensive network. A lot of the growth over the past few years has been down the opening of new operations, including the two that opened their doors this year – firstly São Paulo and, more recently, Los Angeles.” Leach concluded: “This continued growth is testament to the hard work of our staff and the successful implementation of a number of management strategies - we are a cash rich company and reinvest heavily in our training and the treatment of our staff – which explains our exceptionally low staff turnover and place in The Sunday times 100 Best Companies To Work For list.”

First of many charters to world's newest country July, 2011 ACS is always, one way or another, involved in ground breaking events. The world’s newest country; The Republic of South Sudan, celebrated its independence at midnight on the 9th of July and ACS proudly transported VIP guests to the celebrations in Juba, the country’s capital. Becoming a member state of the UN five days later, South Sudan may well become a popular destination for executive and cargo charters, as businesses look to make good of trade opportunities that the country could present. CEO of ACS Asia Pacific Gavin Copus, certainly believes that South Sudan will become a popular destination for charters; “I foresee much activity coming both in and out over the next few months. Politicians and businesses obviously have a vested interest in the county’s development and we look forward to providing charter solutions to those investors. Southern Sudan may well prove to be a hotbed of business activity."

Japanese evacuations become latest in ACS’s relief operations this year March, 2011 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 People: 10,000+ Cargo: 300 tons

ACS Hong Kong moves to larger office January, 2011 Air Charter Service’s Hong Kong operation has relocated to new offices after having had its record year. Offering both, passenger and cargo air charters, the ACS Hong Kong office saw around a 30% growth in business. This increase, coupled with the expansion in their sales force has meant the Hong Kong team have had to move to bigger offices in order to accommodate their growth. The Hong Kong team have relocated to their new office in Admiralty, which boasts a greater space and more room to expand into. Managing Director, Tony Bauckham, explains: “we had completely outgrown our office space – we literally had no spare desks left at all. We are growing at such a rate that we always knew we were going to eventually need more room.” The Hong Kong offices’ relocation to bigger offices is testament to the company’s omnipresent approach to being the best and towards continued growth. Bauckham added, “We’ve recently opened new offices in Frankfurt and Sao Paulo, and have plans for more this year if our business continues as well as it did in 2010”. Head of the Asia-Pacific team is Gavin Copus, with over 15 years’ experience in the aviation industry. He is supported by a team of both, passenger and cargo account managers.

Air Charter Service makes sure football fans didn't miss semi final July, 2010 Last week Air Charter Service made sure that four of its VIP Chinese football fans didn’t miss the crunch World Cup semi final between Spain and Germany. ACS staff made good use of their local knowledge to avoid any delays. Well publicised delays at Durban International Airport meant that hundreds of fans missed some, if not all, of the important match. The airport had underestimated quite how many supporters would be flying in for the game, and this caused a huge backlog of flights at the airport. ACS’s Hong Kong and Johannesburg offices combined to advise their clients the best course of action. The avid football supporters requested a jet to take them to Durban International Airport from Cape Town on the afternoon of the match. Air Charter Service, mindful of the potentially overrun airport, recommended a KingAir aircraft instead, and for them to fly into the much smaller Virginia Airport which, with a runway of only a little over 900 metres, only accepts turboprops. Not only did this mean that there would be no airport hold-ups, but they landed only 6 miles from the stadium – Durban’s main airport is 13 miles away. The VIPs got to the match in plenty of time to see Spain ease past Germany 1-0 to reach the final, whilst some less fortunate fans were held up by the airport delays missing most of the action. Air Charter Service is now recognised as one of the leading names in aircraft chartering, offering not only private jet charters, but also commercial airliners and cargo charters. Continued year on year growth has resulted in a turnover now exceeding $250 million, with more than 4,000 charters operated annually. With offices in Toronto, New York, London, Paris, Bilbao, Johannesburg, St Petersburg, Moscow, Dubai, Hong Kong and Tokyo they are able to provide their clients with cargo and passenger charters worldwide.

ACS Hong Kong has a great first quarter April, 2010 Air Charter Service’s Hong Kong office has had a record first quarter. All of ACS’s ten worldwide offices have enjoyed a successful first quarter of the year, but Hong Kong in particular has thrived. Gavin Copus, Director ACS Hong Kong, said: “The charter market here in Asia is booming at the moment. Private jet charterers in this region seem to have learnt from the U.S. and Europeans’ mistakes when it comes to JetCards and fractional ownership. They realise that ad-hoc chartering is more flexible and normally more economical, and that is what we offer. These other schemes require large up front down-payments and, aside from restricting you to one type of aircraft, are calculated so that the offerer does not lose money on the block hours. “We had a great 2009, but we’ve seen incredible growth in the first three months of this year. With sales in excess of US$ 2.6 million in what is traditionally the quiet part of the year is a great achievement, and all credit goes to my team, who have worked exceptionally hard.” In recent weeks finding solutions for our customers affected by the volcanic ash cloud in Northern Europe has been our main focus. By the time Europe woke up to the news on Thursday 15th April, we had already been working on ideas to help our customers, including flying into southern Europe as soon as possible.” Air Charter Service enjoyed a fantastic 2009 across its ten offices having its record year. The company operated over 4,000 charters. Contact our Hong Kong passenger sales team on passenger@aircharter.com.hk

ACS Hong Kong utilises local knowledge for flight into India December, 2009 Dora Chow, account manager ACS Hong Kong, recently handled a tricky request. A client needed to get from Beijing to Pune airbase in India for an important meeting and a wedding. The client had booked with their regular aircraft operator who had come up against a number of problems flying into Pune airport – they had underestimated the difficulties in obtaining the landing permission at the military airfield, and said 24 hours before the flight was due to depart that they were in fact unable to land in Pune, but fly only as far as Mumbai. Although the distance between the two Indian cities is relatively small, the passengers were on such a tight schedule, due to another meeting in Beijing, that they needed a connecting charter flight. This is when they turned to the expertise of Air Charter Service. Dora wasted no time in contacting her colleague Kirti Odedra. Kirti, fluent in Hindi, was able to assist Dora in locating a suitable and reliable Indian operated aircraft, obtaining the landing permissions, and liaising with the ground staff at the handling agent directly to ensure everything was clear and the operation would run smoothly. ACS has offices worldwide and amongst its staff has knowledge of almost 20 different languages, making it easier for their clients to get the best possible local service, whether it be private jet charter, commercial airliner charter, or cargo aircraft charter. Contact our Hong Kong passenger sales team on passenger@aircharter.com.hk

ACS opens in Japan September, 2009 Air Charter Service continues its global expansion with the opening of its second Asian office, in Tokyo, Japan. Able to offer both cargo services, along with executive & commercial jet passenger services, ACS Japan can cater for any charter requirement. In charge of the Japanese operation is Toru Chiba, who brings a wealth of experience in the charter business with him. Toru has been in the aviation and charter industry for a total of 18 years now, and is excited by this new venture, which is part of a GSA agreement. He commented: “This is a great opportunity for ACS’s expansion within Asia. The Japanese market is a large one, which I know well, and I look forward to utilising my expertise in assisting the many other ACS offices worldwide with localised solutions.” ACS managing director, Tony Bauckham, said: “Following the success of our office in Hong Kong since it opened, we have been looking to expand in the Asia Pacific region, and we targeted Tokyo a while ago. Many western business people travel to the region and having a local presence allows ACS to offer them the very best solutions using local knowledge. Obviously it also allows us to better serve Japanese clients as well, further expanding our customer base and further strengthening ACS’s position as one of the world’s leading charter companies. Toru has the perfect credentials to make the office as successful as all our others, and we look forward to its development.”