Global Associated Aviation (or: Son of Avient)

The tangled lineage of companies descended from Avient Aviation just became even more tangled, with the announcement by the directors of Zimbabwe-registered AV Cargo that they had formed a new company, Global Associated Aviation Ltd, to offer a single MD-11F for short-term ACMI contracts.

To make sense of this, one needs to go back several years to the formation of Avient Aviation. The carrier set up Avient Ltd as its sales and marketing agent in 2009, but Avient Ltd soon ran out of money and was put into administration. The administrators appointed Simon Clarke to take over Avient Ltd’s business through the formation of a new company, AV Cargo Ltd., but the new company also ran into difficulty and was dissolved in 2013.

But no sooner was AV Cargo Ltd. dissolved, than Mr. Clarke formed a yet another new venture, under the name AV Cargo Airlines, with one of the former directors of Avient Ltd.

Through all this, Avient Aviation operated first one, then a second MD-11F, primarily between Europe and Africa. A third MD-11F (48410) has been rumored to join the fleet for some time, on lease from PAFCO. However, this third freighter has in fact been in storage, and/or undergoing maintenance, in Jakarta since April, (and was in storage at Zurich before that).

Which brings us full circle to Global Associated Aviation, which Mr. Clarke told Cargo Facts’ European editor Alex Lennane would be used to “further expand our business model through the development of ACMI work but centering on short-term low-utilization contracts,” using this third freighter. The question, of course, is: who will want to ACMI-lease an MD-11F on a short-term contract? Perhaps we will find out sometime this month, when Mr. Clarke says the freighter will leave Jakarta and enter service.