In July of this year, Air Charter Service arranged the delivery of two aftercoolers, weighing almost 50 tons each, from Italy to an offshore oil platform that was being constructed in Indonesia.

Jason Bird, Cargo Director of ACS Singapore, commented: “Our customer approached us to transport two 48 ton aftercoolers from Italy to Batam, which is on an Indonesian Island, just off the coast of Singapore. The extreme weight of the cargo led us to recommend using an Antonov 124 and flying directly into Singapore Changi Airport, due to the superior cargo handling facilities and the need for external cranes to offload the cargo.

“In the months leading up to the charter we worked closely with an engineering company and the airline in the creation of a cradle capable of supporting the units during the loading process. Our European team had previous experience of coordinating road permits and escort vehicles for outsize loads, so helped facilitate the movement of the cargo to Milan Airport, which we did ahead of the day of the flight and stored in a warehouse overnight. We arranged the airside permits for the external cranes and were present for the loading in Milan, which went without a hitch.

“The customer and I then met the aircraft on landing in Singapore, to ensure the offloading was as smooth as the loading. Our customer asked us to arrange overnight warehouse storage in Singapore, as well as the trucking, including road permits and escorts for delivery to the port. We also arranged for the cranes that we had used at the airport to be present to load the pieces onto the ship, bound for its final destination in Indonesia.”

Dan Morgan-Evans, ACS’s Group Cargo Director, added: “This charter is a great example of how important our global network of offices is – working closely together to organise complex operations across continents.”