Notes to Editors
- Chapman Freeborn is the largest air charter broker in the world with 36 offices in 20 countries
- In June 2007, we were voted"Air Cargo Charter Broker of The Year" at the ACW World Air Cargo Awards in Munich
- Chapman Freeborn was established in 1973
- Annual group turnover is over $450m
- The Chapman Freeborn group employs nearly 300 personnel
- We specialise in moving urgent cargo, heavy and outsize pieces, high value commodities, dangerous goods and AOG parts
- Many of the world’s major relief organisations, governments, NGOs and other aid providers use our expertise in transporting relief goods and organising personnel evacuations
- We provide ACMI, wet, damp and dry leasing solutions for many of the world’s largest airlines
- We also provide General Sales Agency (GSA), Station Management and Ground Handling Services
- Our operations division, Paragon Global Flight Support provides 24 hour outsourced flight support
- Chapman Freeborn is listed in the Sunday Times’ Top Track 250 of the biggest mid-market private companies in the UK
For further information on this story, or about the Chapman Freeborn Group, please contact Julie Black or Andy James on +44 (0)1293 572832
Chapman Freeborn UAE orchestrates complicated air charter
21st December 2007
Chapman Freeborn Airchartering’s office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates was recently involved in a challenging air charter project.
The client, an event management company, needed to bring 450 passengers from the Armenian National Orchestra & Choir in to provide the backing for Opera superstars Il Divo at a huge event to celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
We used a local UAE based operator to do four air rotations between Yerevan and Dubai to bring all the passengers and their luggage and instruments. Personnel from our UAE offices were on hand at the airport in Dubai to assist and Anton Frolov, a Russian national from our London office went to Yerevan to oversee the operations there. Just as well as there was a great deal of troubleshooting and supervision required to ensure the smooth running of this operation!
Various challenges were encountered including the issue of loading a large number of precious instruments and Visa issues. The authorities had failed to properly process the vast number of required visas in time. This resulted in the jamming of many fax machines in Yerevan and Dubai whilst they were transmitted downline in order to facilitate entry in a timely manner. Anton worked hard to ensure that all the paperwork was in place and liaised with the control authorities in order to ensure check in was completed and on time departures were achieved.
All arrived in time for rehearsal and the performance itself which was stunning and exceptionally memorable.
The return flights were expected to be very straightforward but of course, it wasn’t....Although they had been briefed not to do so, the passengers had managed to make good use of their time there to visit all the local retail outlets, especially the electrical stores and they turned up to check in with stereos and of course a number of ubiquitous oversized wide screen plasma televisions! Thankfully, our supervisor was once again able to work with the handlers and crew to load all the oversized and overweight purchases and all passengers and their shopping made the return trip.
We had bid for this work against a number of otherair charter brokers and were delighted to have been the successful service provider for such a prestigious event.
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