Air Charter Service’s Mexico team helped avoid a production stoppage last month when it arranged urgent transport for 561 kilogrammes of beer hops from the US to Mexico.

A freight forwarder contacted ACS on behalf of a brewery client facing a line shutdown unless the shipment could arrive within 24 hours. A Falcon 20, available nearby, was chosen for its suitable side cargo door and ability to accommodate the load on one pallet.

“We were contacted by our freight forwarder customer in Mexico whose client’s brewery urgently needed a delivery of hops to avoid a production line shut down,” says Marco Circosta, CEO of ACS Mexico. “The hops needed to be in Mexico within 24 hours of the customer first contacting us, so we quickly got to work sourcing an aircraft and found a Falcon 20, that was available nearby and was easily loadable, as it had a side cargo door that could fit the 561-kilogramme load in on just one pallet.”

He adds: “A complication was that, as the cargo was not travelling under refrigeration, we needed to coordinate with all relevant parties in order to minimise exposure to external conditions by expediting the customs, loading and offloading processes. From initial phone call to completion of the charter was just under 20 hours, ensuring the production line could keep on running.”