The ACS San Francisco team: Tom Howe, Spencer Tobin, Loretta Mendelovits, Blake Crawford, Caitie Uhlmann and Richard Thompson

ACS invests further in China and US

The Chinese operation of Air Charter Service has moved to larger premises in Beijing to enable the next step in its plans for expansion. Managing director of ACS China Wanny Wu says: “The new office is in the heart of the business district of the city and double the size of our previous premises.

“This is an exciting time for the Chinese aviation industry, with the government’s plans to increase the number of airports from 220 to 260 by the end of 2020. When you think that the US has more than 5,000 airports and airfields there is still a long way to go, but we are heading in the right direction.”

The private jet market also has room to grow: “Ten years ago it was a novelty for people to use a business jet but today it’s starting to become a part of everyday life for hundreds of people. It’s also much easier to operate an aircraft in China today than it was ten years ago, due in part to the gradual liberalisation of airspace,” she adds. “There are more than one million millionaires in China so our potential customer base is huge, and it will increase as people continue to learn of the benefits of private aviation.”

Strong West Coast presence

The company has also opened a new office in San Francisco, its second in the state of California and sixth in the US. President of ACS Americas Richard Thompson says: “We opened our LA office seven years ago. It has steadily become one of our fastest growing offices and so far this year we are 30 per cent up on 2017 numbers.

“Some of our best clients are located in the San Francisco Bay area and we wanted to be here to better service them. We also felt that it was the next logical step in our US expansion plan, following on from opening our new Manhattan office earlier this year. The new operation will be headed up by Loretta Mendelovits, who joined us more than four years ago and has shown great leadership skills. These will be put to good use as she takes on the San Francisco market.”

Thompson adds: “Almost 10 per cent of all private jet traffic in the US departs from California so the demand is certainly enough to have two offices in the state.”

Club night to the skies

ACS recently arranged for a VIP-configured, fully customised Airbus A340 to take some of the world’s top DJs to host a party in the skies, before kicking off a clubbing weekend in Germany.

BigCityBeats’ World Club Dome festival is a highlight of the clubbing calendar. For around 100 lucky guests the party started earlier at more than 30,000 feet between London and Germany.

ACS Germany MD Caroline Werf explains: “We were excited to be tasked with arranging this special charter again and some of the biggest DJs on the bill kicked off the weekend for the passengers. Curbi and Alle Farben both performed sets as the aircraft flew from London to Munich and Frankfurt.”