Current news

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

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

» October, 2011 - Half year results 2011

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

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

» February, 2011 - Air Charter Service - Libya evacuation update

» February, 2011 - Air Charter Service begins evacuation charters from Libya

» January, 2011 - ACS Johannesburg moves to larger offices

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

» January, 2010 - Lyndee enables family to enjoy a relaxing break

» November, 2009 - Come and meet the ACS team at Soccerex

» October, 2009 - ACS South Africa offer whole package for mine visit


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.

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 for 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 Passengers: 10,000+ Cargo: 300 tons

Air Charter Service - Libya evacuation update February, 2011 Air Charter Service has now evacuated over 4500 passengers from Libya in one of the largest and most complex evacuation operations the company has ever faced. So far the company has chartered 26 flights out of Libya with more charters yet to fly with passengers from many nationalities including, Turkish, British, American, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai. According to reports, the number of foreign nationals looking to be evacuated in total is around 100,000. By this rationale, ACS has evacuated at least 4% of the total number of people needing to leave Libya. As many of these foreign nationals are crossing the land borders and being evacuated by ferry, ACS has played and extremely significant role in the air evacuation. The first ACS charter out of Tripoli departed on Wednesday and was one of the first civilian charters to do so following the crisis. Members of many ACS offices including Dubai, Spain, London and New York worked together as a team to ensure the successful operation in the most difficult and chaotic of circumstances. ACS had staff on the ground in Malta to ensure smooth transit of over 1000 passengers who we evacuated from Tripoli to their final destinations in Bangkok and Hanoi (see picture). ACS Dubai’s Dmitriy Korshunov was also in hand in Dubai International airport to greet Chinese passengers from our evacuation flight from Shebha in Libya.

Air Charter Service begins evacuation charters from Libya February, 2011 Leading aircraft charter specialist, ACS, has had its first flight depart troubled Libya on Wednesday. The violent demonstrations in the African country have caused many to fear for their lives and flee by any means possible. With virtually no flights departing from Tripoli and with Benghazi airport closed, this is proving difficult. Matt Purton, Commercial Jets Director at ACS, explains some of the difficulties: “Yesterday afternoon [22nd Feb] only 2 landing permits for chartered flights out of the 457 registered had been granted. Our Dubai office managed to obtain one yesterday evening and has operated our first flight out of the country, on an Airbus A320, carrying almost two hundred Turkish citizens to Antalya this morning. And we now have permits for four more flights, all to operate today. Across our worldwide offices we have bookings in place for more than 3,000 people and are just waiting on those permits. We are pushing these through diplomatic channels as this appears to be the only way at the moment. “Following the violent protesting in Egypt we have helped evacuate more than 2,000 foreign nationals on chartered flights so far. As with the situation there, we are looking to take many people out of Libya to nearby safer havens such as southern Europe or the Middle East, and to continue their travel from there. Some are flying as far as the States and Asia though. “We’re just here to help get as many people out of the affected areas as we can.” Air Charter Service arranges more than 5,000 charters every year, incorporating tens of thousands of flights, on all aircraft - private jets, larger widebody airliners and cargo aircraft.

ACS Johannesburg moves to larger offices January, 2011 Air Charter Service’s Johannesburg operation has relocated to newer offices. The South African office had a record previous year, which saw around a 30% growth in business. This coupled with their significant increase in sales force has led the team to relocate to newer, larger offices. Moving 400m down the road to the Pivot Office Block, Managing Director, Tony Bauckham explains, “We had completely outgrown our office space – we literally had no spare desks at all. We are growing at such a rate that we always knew we were going to eventually need more room.” The relocation cements ACS’s attitude to being the best and towards continued growth, whilst their expansion is testament to their dedication, commitment and hard work. 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.” ACS Johannesburg has three divisons - Executive Jets, Commercial Jets and Cargo departments.

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.

Lyndee enables family to enjoy a relaxing break January, 2010 Lyndee du Toit, Director of ACS South Africa, received a call from a regular client of hers, but with a slightly different request to usual. The gentleman, who often books jets to attend business meetings in neighbouring countries, wanted to take his whole family away for a relaxing break. So Lyndee found a Gulfstream II aircraft to carry the twelve strong family to the coastal town of George. The family included the gentleman’s children as well as his grandchildren. George is very popular with tourists as it is picturesquely situated between the Outeniqua Mountains to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south, and has many tourist attractions ranging from national monuments and museums to world-class golf courses. There is also a steam railway through the mountains. The family spent a very relaxing and enjoyable 4 day break before flying home. The gentleman personally thanked Lyndee for her efforts which made the whole trip stress-free for him and his family and saved the otherwise difficult travel arrangements. For any charter requirement at all, please contact Lyndee and her team at sales@aircharter.co.za

Come and meet the ACS team at Soccerex November, 2009 Air Charter Service is attending the World’s premier soccer exhibition - Soccerex. The event has been going for more than 10 years now, and is being held in South Africa for the third year running, in the run-up to next year’s FIFA World Cup in the country. ACS will be at Stand Number 127 throughout the exhibition which runs from Monday November 30th until Wednesday December 2nd. Lyndee du Toit, Director of ACS’s Johannesburg office, will be joined by representatives from ACS London. Lyndee commented: “Soccerex is a great forum to meet all the important contacts in the game. Although we only opened the South African office earlier this year, ACS has been to the previous two exhibitions here, and they were both a great success. And with the World Cup just around the corner, it’s even more important than usual to have a presence at the show”. For any aircraft charter, please contact us: sales@aircharter.co.za

ACS South Africa offer whole package for mine visit October, 2009 Lyndee du Toit, Director of ACS’s Johannesburg office, pulled out all the stops to organise a visit to a mining town for a large multinational company. The flight was from Johannesburg to a small town called Sishen on a specially configured Embraer 120 VIP (18 luxury seats instead of the usual 30), carrying executives to the site visit. Sishen is such a remote town, that there is no car hire there, or any easy to find accommodation. Lyndee arranged a minivan and luxury car to be transported to Sishen from Johannesburg (600 km) to meet the arriving passengers and take them to the mine. She also arranged hard to come by accommodation for the crew. Lyndee commented: “A lot of meticulous planning went into the job. We had various meetings and schedule changes with separate members of the site team to make sure everything ran just as the client wanted. The site visit was a great success though, and the customer was over the moon with the whole operation.” For any aircraft charter, please contact us: sales@aircharter.co.za