Charter broker Air Charter Service recently partnered with regional charter operator Hinterland Aviation, Corporate Travel Management (CTM) and Trinity College to plan the transportation of more than 300 Christmas presents to the children and families in the remote Australian region of Kowanyama Aboriginal Shire in the far north of Queensland.

Paul Crook, ceo of ACS's Sydney office, says: “The relatively complex set up of the operation meant that it was in planning for almost four months. Some of the ACS team went shopping for the gifts at the toy store earlier in the month. We then helped to wrap them all, using more than 250 metres of wrapping paper. We had the seats from the aircraft removed in order to fit as many gifts as possible on board."

During the four months of planning needed for this charter there were a number of considerations and tasks that the ACS team had to tackle. They worked with the local council to ensure adequate gifts for each age group and gender were sourced; no gift could include batteries due to the remoteness of the community is and the families being unable to source replacements. And all gifts were wrapped and labelled by age and gender before being loaded into the cabin from which aircraft engineers had removed the seats to allow as many gifts to be transported as possible.

“In partnership with Corporate Travel Management, Hinterland Aviation and Trinity College we arranged a Cessna C208 Caravan aircraft to carry the presents from Cairns to the remote airstrip at Kowanyama airport's new terminal. The aircraft was welcomed by the community at the airport and soon after Santa Claus appeared to hand out the presents to the delighted children.”

As well as the visit from Santa there was a community BBQ and an opportunity for the entire community to come together and celebrate. The team even worked with a local news channel, Seven News Cairns, to raise awareness for the community and help spread the joy.