UK-headquartered Airone Aviation has booked over 145 million kilos or 145,000 tonnes of cargo in its first year as the global cargo sales agent for Moldova-based charter airline AeroTransCargo (ATC).
The first 12 months of the GSA agreement has seen operate over 1,300 flights operated by ATC’s fleet of 747-400 freighters, which grew from four to six in over a year.
The cargo flights include 244 services ex Hong Kong, 88 from Liege and 83 from Zhengzhou. Other key Chinese airports that saw much of the action were Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Macau, Nanchang, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
The airline’s fleet also provided cargo capacity to customers in Asia Pacific and Southeast Asia, such as Bangkok, Brisbane, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
According to Paul Bennet, CEO of Airone, ATC’s reliable flight operations and continued fleet investment allowed his team to confidently market the capacity to charter brokers, freight forwarders and consolidators looking for short and long-term charter solutions.
“We already have strong forward bookings well into 2022 and expect the airline to continue to invest and grow in line with the opportunities we are generating all over the world,” Bennet added.
In Europe, in the past year, the cargo sales agent generated full load bookings for services to Amsterdam, Brussels, Budapest, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Leipzig, Luxembourg, Maastricht, Madrid, Ostend, Paris, Prague, Vatry, Vienna, Zaragoza and Zurich. Outside of Europe and Asia, demand has also been met from major freight forwarders, logistics providers and brokers in Costa Rica, Delhi, Dhaka, Lagos, Lusaka and Rio de Janeiro.
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Airone Aviation said it already has another 1,000 full flights booked between August and the end of 2021 to transport another 115 million kilos or 115,000 tonnes of cargo. In June the company was chosen by Saudi-based private jet operator Aviation Horizons as its agent for regional 737 cargo services.
“Our first year as a charter airline has exceeded all our expectations and for this I have to pay tribute to the performance of our global GSA partner,” said Jai Singh, chief executive and managing director of ATC.
“Through their neutrality and ‘Blue Chip’ contacts in leading freight forwarders and brokers, they have quickly established the AEROTRANSCARGO brand in the international cargo market and given us a platform for the next stage of our growth,” he added.
