broker news
Celebair: Lisa Maffia Chapman Freeborn’s new Wings 24 team assists airlines in immediately finding an instant subcharter aircraft to continue operating their flight programmes - helping to maintain punctuality and customer service levels. The Wings 24 service augments the “Wings” product, launched earlier this year to provide options for the urgent transport of spares/ equipment and engines in the event of AOG situations to airline fleets around the globe. Banham says that, by combining the two specific services, Chapman Freeborn will be able to source large or small cargo aircraft and on-board couriers to transport time-critical parts, as well as offering options on substitute aircraft to cover committed flying schedules. (BACA) says EuroCaspian’s freight monitoring capabilities offer benefits in countries such as Angola, Harris adds. “The company can facilitate transfers and the tracking and tracing of shipments with an actual representative based on the ground.” EuroCaspian, which specialises in oil and gas equipment movements, also has operations in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Its bespoke client services in the air, coupled with an ever-expanding dedicated representation on the March 2009
Both the new Wings 24 and Wings services provide a single point of contact for airlines experiencing AOG problems. The company has also made recent managerial changes at its Sharjah and Hong Kong offices. Michael Roth, who joined Chapman Freeborn in 1998, has been promoted to the role of general manager of the company’s Sharjah office, where he will head a 40-strong team of sales and operations staff. Roth previously represented the company in Stockholm, Dubai and Hong Kong. Replacing Roth in Hong Kong is Gregory Chung who joins Chapman Freeborn as general manager and will be responsible for day-to-day oversight and strategic development of the business. He was most recently employed as general manager Asia with Ocean Airlines. In separate news, the U.K. Ministry of Defence has awarded its South Atlantic airbridge contract to Chapman Freeborn and Edinburgh-based flyglobespan. The twice-weekly flights to Ascension Island and the Falklands will be operated on the Scottish airline’s Boeing 767-300ER aircraft. The airbridge from RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire is run under a two-year contract with two one-year options. The B767-300 aircraft is to carry up to 184 civilian and government passengers on each flight, with the remaining payload taken with freight. Separately Chapman Freeborn arranged an Embraer Legacy for the climax of ITV2’s CelebAir, the reality TV show in which 10 celebrities took on roles from check-in clerks to air stewards in a bid to be named the airline’s star employee. Chapman Freeborn chartered the 13-seat Legacy from UK based executive charter operator, Twinjet for a flight to Milan and back. The finale of the series featured comedienne Amy Lame and singer Lisa Maffia. For early rounds of the show ITV2 joined forces with Monarch Airlines, with members of the public booking to fly with CelebAir to a host of locations. Cecile Monchatre, who works with the Chapman Freeborn U.K. vip team, says: “This project was a great deal of hard work but, in the spirit of the programme, a lot of fun. The celebrity cabin attendants did really well.”
ground, proved attractive to TAAGAngola Airlines, Harris says. The Angola LNG Project will gather associated gas (AG) in water depths of up to 1,500 metres with the involvement of companies which will include ExxonMobil and Chevron.
Joao Rodrigues and Sam Harris, along with officials from the Angolan Embassy, posed for photographs after the signing of the cargo sales agency contract
ACI (Arabia) targets rising demand for ad hoc Far East travel Dubai-based Air Charter International (Arabia) is planning to tap into rising demand for ad hoc travel to the Far East. “We are still working on refining our objectives and finalising our business plan for 2009 but there will be a major initiative to target the Far East market. We are very keen to make the most of potential demand,” says ceo Stuart Wheeler. The company has strategic offices located around the world with Kosovo convenient for Europe and Sydney among the offices that will promote the Far East initiative. “We liaise with
Stuart Wheeler: refining objectives around 2,500 operators around the world and recently we have been touching base with a large number of them with the emphasis very much on the Far East market. There is a great deal of demand for ad hoc charter and that is what we plan to cater for,” Wheeler adds. Jet-Ops FZE, a wholly-owned subsidiary of ACI (Arabia) holds the UAE AOC and also operates Cessna 208 Caravans on behalf of Dubai based Seaplane sightseeing company called Seawings. As a broker ACI (Arabia) sources aircraft for ad hoc charter ranging from executive jets to helicopters and from Medevac to cargo. Charter Broker