News Release

Air Charter Service responds to coronavirus outbreak

February 12, 2020:

Leading aircraft charter company, Air Charter Service, has said that it has been inundated with requests for charters relating to the travel disruption caused by the outbreak of the novel coronavirus throughout China and Asia.

Justin Bowman, ACS's chief executive, commented: “For the past two and a half weeks our offices around the world have been arranging flights on local charter aircraft; everything from four passengers on a private jet to hundreds on larger aircraft or 100 tonnes of surgical masks. It has been all systems go since the epidemic was first reported.

“Some customers have tried to avoid infection by flying with their families on private jets to avoid travelling on commercial aircraft with a large amount of people, whereas several organisations, as well as governments, have evacuated en masse on larger aircraft, such as an Airbus A380.

“We have flown in various types of relief cargo for the country, including, protective overalls, medical gloves and millions of surgical masks. We have also had clients not willing to put their cargo on aircraft that have recently been to China.”

“We have faced various challenges in booking the flights, including customers requesting crew that had not been to China since the beginning of January, obtaining diplomatic permits and staff from our three regional offices working from home, to minimise their risk of infection. Our US, European and Middle East offices have all also been involved in booking the charters.”