Cargo charter landscape unrecognisable from two years ago

Dan Morgan-Evans, Group Cargo Sales Director at Air Charter Service, the world’s largest aircraft charter broker, describes the charter market as ‘unrecognisable’ compared to two years ago in terms of the aircraft and airlines used and cargo flown. 

Morgan-Evans, who has been in the company’s cargo division for 20 years, said: “Before the Covid pandemic, typical aircraft and cargo for us would include small aircraft like Metros and An-26s transporting automotive parts, widebody aircraft such as B747s and B777s transporting high value goods, and specialist freighters such as the An124 and 225 reserved for outsized and project cargo. However, the pandemic has changed things. We are using passenger aircraft with cargo loaded in the hold, and often on the seats on almost a daily basis as well as using specialist aircraft such as the Antonov An225 transporting cargo that never would have flown by charter let alone on the largest aircraft in the world.

Our recent use of the An225 has been the best illustration of how crazy the market is at the moment. Usually the largest aircraft in the world is, understandably, the most expensive to operate and is almost solely used for exceptionally heavy or outsize loads that cannot be transported on any other aircraft. Since the start of the pandemic though, where costs of freighters and other charter aircraft have sky-rocketed, the An225 has become the only option in some cases. We have used it for a number of charters and different cargoes in the past 12 months where I had to check with the team that they hadn’t made a mistake when describing the cargo. 

“The one that springs to mind most was three back-to-back flights carrying artificial Christmas trees from the Far East to Ireland, with each shipment weighing in at 130 tons. Usually this type of cargo would travel via ocean freight but most shipping lanes were completely full in the run up to Christmas, meaning that charters were the only option and the An225 just happened to be the best option on the market.

“We have booked the An225 three times in the past three weeks – that’s more times than we would usually charter it in a whole year, pre-pandemic!”

Watch a video of a recent ACS AN-225 charter here:

~ENDS~

About Air Charter Service

Air Charter Service is a global aircraft charter broker with 28 worldwide offices, spanning all six major continents and we offer private jet, commercial airliner and cargo aircraft charters, as well as onboard courier solutions. We arrange more than 23,000 charter flights annually with revenue of more than 1.2 billion dollars in 2020. We were formed in 1990 by Chairman Chris Leach and CEO Justin Bowman in the basement of a house, and we now employ more than 500 staff worldwide.