Back in 2008 Air Charter Service opened an office in Hong Kong, its first presence in the Asia Pacific region. Regional director of Asia Pacific Stephen Fernandez says: “Our first Hong Kong office originally consisted of a private charter division and a cargo charter division. It has since undergone impressive growth thanks to the robust economic climate in the region. Now we are a strong team with an additional group charter division, an onboard courier division and with IT, marketing, office administration and accounting departments."

ACS Hong Kong has arranged more than 3,000 charters over the past ten years and Fernandez says that every charter comes with a story, and many are linked to events happening in the region.

Cargo director APAC region Joseph Tam recalls: “Of the memorable flights that we have handled, top of the list are the relief charters. We helped to arrange seven Ilyushin 76s with emergency aid to Padang following the earthquake in Indonesia in 2009 and we were entrusted to deliver humanitarian aid with an Antonov 12 to those who suffered from Typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines in 2013.”

“We were assigned to evacuate almost 1,000 executives of a telecommunications company and their family members in 2011 from Japan after the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami,” adds executive jet director APAC region James Royds-Jones. “We were also asked for charter solutions during the European ash clouds in 2010 and 2014, as well as the recent Mount Agung volcano eruption in Bali.”

Other interesting flights relate to animal transportation and Tam continues: “We have delivered sharks and fish from Sanya in China to Sochi in Russia, and carried pigs from Singapore to Malaysia, which is rather rare and unusual for a Muslim country. We brought the first Ilyushin 96 to Australia in 2010 and we flew an Antonov 124 from Tianjin, China to Burkina Faso in West Africa in 2014.”

Royds-Jones adds: “We flew a Challenger 605 to the Pacific island of Tinian direct from Hong Kong, making it the first international flight into the island's airport, and on the passenger side we fly celebrities in and out of the region. We have brought famous singers to Asia as part of their world tours and arranged intra-Asia travel for local movie stars numerous times throughout the last ten years. Special charters have meant flying royal families and high ranking government officials on VIP trips, fulfilling their challenging requirements.

“At a national level we carried the Asia Philharmonic Orchestra to Europe for their showcase covering six cities in 2017. We have also brought in English Premier League teams for their pre-season matches in the region, and have recently taken the Asian national football teams to overseas matches too.”

Looking forward ACS sees more fascinating events on the horizon: Beijing's new airport, which opens in 2019, will be the biggest in the world, meaning that more aircraft will be available in Asia Pacific.