Freight forwarder Europa Air & Sea recently chartered an Antonov AN-124 for an urgent hydraulic pump unit shipment from the UK to UAE, reports HLPFI’s sister publication Air Cargo News.
The company said that the sheer size of the cargo meant it had to utilise the 120-tonne capacity aircraft. The company also needed to obtain specialist permits for the domestic haulage leg of the journey from Great Yarmouth to the Midlands.
The aircraft took off from East Midlands Airport in the UK on April 17 and arrived in the UAE at 1.30am local time on April 18, with the flooding experienced in Dubai adding further complexity to the operation.
“The cargo had to undergo complex Customs clearance processes for export to its UAE end-user and was extremely time critical,” Europa explained. “Having previously experienced delays of up to three weeks due to these complexities, the customer sought out Europa Air & Sea with its Customs infrastructure in Dubai and the UK to successfully clear the cargo within hours of landing, contributing to the seamless movement between customer and end-user.”
Kevin Perry, Europa Air & Sea’s UK-based airfreight operations manager, who oversaw the project at East Midlands Airport, said: “This was a challenging project due to both its scale and timeliness, but the weather added another layer of complexity. Despite this, we were delighted to be able to deliver this time-critical cargo.”
