Neo Air Charter transports urgent giant track rollers, Frankfurt to Islamaba

RECENTLY-formed NEO Air Charter of Germany, founder of the Global Charter Alliance (GCA) the world's first consortium of independent air charter brokers, has handled the urgent transportation of two giant track rollers from Frankfurt Hahn to Islamaba at a cost-saving.

The track rollers - each weighing in at 38 tonnes and measuring 6 metres x 2.4 metres x 2.9 metres on their specially-constructed cradles - were needed urgently to prevent shutdown of a major cement manufacturing plant.

From the initial enquiry, through inspection of the cargo, quotation, commissioning of the custom-built cradles, confirmation of flight, arrangements for loading, and delivery to the aircraft took just four working days from loading in Germany to unloading in Pakistan, all personally supervised by senior Neo staff including flights, said a company statement.

Said NEO joint managing director Stefan Kohlmann: "This was a very demanding charter due to its extreme urgency, and the special equipment needed both for loading and transportation. The loads were a tight fit and, more critically, were just seven tonnes below the maximum payload of the aircraft.

"Everything went to plan, and the plant was able to continue production without any costly delay. Just as importantly, by carefully assessing all the options, we provided a solution that met the tight deadline while offering the customer a very significant saving over the more obvious alternative."

It was originally thought that the size and weight of the two pieces would necessitate the high cost of chartering the giant An-124. However, Neo devised a plan, which enabled the use of two consecutive rotations of the smaller and less costly IL76 aircraft, substantially reducing costs for the shipper.

The aircraft routed via Baku for refuelling and crew changes, and operator Silk Way provided extra crews so that mandatory rest requirements would not cause delays and total transit times would be minimised.