Dépêches

Air Charter of Police Force Out of Afghanistan

Dépèche transmise le 20 juillet 2011 par PRNewswire

DUBAI, UAE, July 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

As politically unstable Afghanistan begins to pick itself up from the devastation of the ongoing conflict; the government and ruling body have devised ways to ensure that the country maintains some semblance of order.

As a recent article in The Washington Post claims, US and Afghani authorities are planning a major overhaul of the nation's Police Force.

Air Charter International had the opportunity to be part of this endeavour when they were approached by a reputable travel agency to transport police officers overseas for training.

"We received the inquiry on the 11th of July, just three days before the first flight was supposed to take place," said Claire Brugirard, Manager of the Charter Sales department at Air Charter International.

There were 560 passengers that were traveling from Kabul in Afghanistan to Sivas in Turkey, who were split up into four different charter flights.

"Because of the number of passengers we started with 2 flights on the 14th July, 1 flight on 15th July and 1 on 16th July." The 560 law enforcement personnel selected for this training were transported to their destination on a Boeing 737-300.

Ms. Brugirard mentioned that organising the number of passengers into their respective chartered flights was not the only challenge of this particular passenger charter.

"Many other aviation companies had bid on this requirement and as a result there was a lot of competition involved," said Ms. Brugirard.

She also stated that since there was a limited time frame and parties such as the Ministry of Interior Affairs of Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), they had to obtain clearances via diplomatic channels which they managed to do successfully.

Ms. Brugirard further stated that they also had to deal with extremely tight operating hours at Sivas Airport. "On Thursday this airport closed as 1800 UTC and on Friday the airport closed at 1400 UTC, so realistically it was almost impossible to fit a schedule into such operating hours."

In light of these restrictions, the Charter Sales team at Air Charter International worked tirelessly to ensure that these flights were successfully deployed. "To combat these difficult timings we worked at and were granted special permission by Turkish authorities to land at a later time in Sivas, Turkey."

The mission was conducted successfully and authorities in Afghanistan were pleased to have their personnel on site in Sivas to begin their training.

"This was a challenging yet rewarding passenger charter," said Ms. Brugirard. "We are grateful for the opportunity to promote our extensive aviation knowledge and services and look forward to working with these various governing bodies again."

Notes to Editor:

Air Charter International (ACI), a leading aircraft charter and leasing company based in Dubai, UAE, has been in operation since 1994 and covers 4-A region, namely: Arabia, Africa, Asia and Asia Pacific and services long and short term aircraft requirements. ACI has also made a strategic move into Aircraft Management through its 100% owned subsidiary: Jet Ops which operates and manages three Cessna 208A Amphibian seaplanes for a commercial tourism operation named Seawings. Seawings provides seaplane operations within the United Arab Emirates and is the only seaplane sightseeing service in the region, considered a must-do for visitors to Dubai. The resource pool of ACI includes professionals from a wide variety of backgrounds & nationalities with a strong focus on aviation related industry and experience.

Contact: Dilukshi Thomas Marketing and Communications Assistant Company: Air Charter International (Arabia) Ltd Phone: +97148070808 Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.aircharter-international.com

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