Digital air cargo charter business CharterSync has landed its 250th outbound China flight carrying vital Covid-19 medical supplies including test kits and syringes.
The company is seeing continued demand for supplies. Co-founder and director of CharterSync, Ed Gillett, says, “Covid-19 infection rates continue to grow in the UK.”
Finding belly-space for vital supplies has required an unconventional decision says Gillett.
Narrow-bodied aircraft like the Airbus A321 are not typically employed for long-haul flights due to their lower fuel capacity, (so) we made the unconventional – and ultimately successful – decision to use short-haul passenger and freight aircraft to complement the wide-bodied Boeing 747s, Boeing 777s, and Airbus A330s,” says Gillett.
“Even when factoring in a refuelling stop en route, CharterSync was able to deliver the goods on schedule.”
As a result, since November 2021, the company has facilitated the arrival of 57 flights of Covid-19 syringes and test kits into the UK, with an additional 193 flights unloading at European airports including Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and Madrid’s Barajas International Airport.
In the UK, CharterSync bypassed traditional hubs such as Heathrow and East Midlands Airport to land cargoes at Liverpool, Birmingham and Bournemouth, and was responsible for the first wide-body cargo flights at Liverpool John Lennon Airport. In China, the company targeted regional airports such as Wuhan, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Zhengzhou.
“Using regional airports was a key part of our strategy,” continues Gillett, who is himself an Airbus A321 pilot. “In the UK, leveraging spare capacity in Liverpool, Birmingham and Bournemouth allowed our customers to skip the queues at Heathrow and East Midlands Airport, and to expedite unloading when the major hubs were congested. In China, where major hubs are experiencing a chronic shortage of trained ground staff, we off-set this by targeting lower-volume airports.”
Liverpool John Lennon Airport director of aviation development Paul Winfield adds, “Liverpool Airport has been delighted to work alongside CharterSync handling critical flights, serving the Northwest community and beyond. The airport has proven itself more than capable of handling regular wide-body services, and looks forward to welcoming more over the coming months.”
