News

Air Charter Service flies Covid test kits to Australia

Air Charter Service (ACS) has arranged 65 flights each carrying over one million Covid test kits from China to Australia.

The test kits were flown from several airports in China over a period of six weeks, where they are manufactured, with the majority flying from Shenzhen.

Due to a shortage of freighters, ACS sourced passenger aircraft with the seats removed, offering higher volumes and payloads of up to 50 tonnes per flight.

The teams in Singapore and Australia used Airbus A330-200s, A330-300s and A340-300s.

The test kits are provided for free to Australian households and have been in high demand.

Jason Bird, Assistant Director and Head of Cargo at ACS Singapore flew to Perth to oversee operations and help offload the cargo.

He says: “With so many charters in such a short timeframe it was essential that every flight stuck to its schedule. We are proud to be able to help rapidly transport these test kits from China here to Perth and other parts of the country, to help to get them distributed across Australia.”