ACS sees rising demand for charter services

U.K.-based aircraft charter company Air Charter Service (ACS) Group announced a 9 percent increase in charter flights, year-over-year, for the first half of its fiscal year, ending July 31st.

The company arranged “more than 5,800 contracts to the end of July,” said Justin Bowman, ACS Group’s CEO. “We’re very pleased with this continued growth, as last year was our best year by quite some way, exceeding our expectations.”

ACS Group’s increase in charters in the first half of 2016 happened in a much tamer market than the industry experienced last year. Bowman explained that, “This year so far we have not had any ‘special events’, such as the West Coast port strike last year, for which we were doing up to three Boeing B747 charters a day for three weeks.” While the Hanjin bankruptcy fiasco caused havoc in the maritime lanes, it failed to drive up demand for air cargo.

Bowman pointed to his company’s revamped Onboard Courier division, which saw a 94 percent increase in business during 1H2016. However, he cautioned that, “last year was its inaugural one, following our new investment in it.” But he concluded that, “They are on track to hit 1,000 jobs this year, which will be a remarkable achievement.”

Earlier this month, ACS announced that it was taking on investment from U.K.-based Alcuin Capital Partners, to accelerate plans for growth. Neither partner publicly disclosed the size of the investment, but ACS said it was looking to grow through acquisition.