An Atlantic alliance
A B747F and an AN-124-100M help an AOG to a high in the Azores. To prevent outage costs from going through the roof in the event of an ‘aircraft on ground’ (AOG), spare parts are generally urgently required. The recent deployment of several experienced players between the USA and Europe was elaborate – and successful.
The Azores are made up of nine major and several minor islands, located approximately 1,400 km from Europe (Portugal), about 1,500 km from Africa (Morocco) and more than 1,900 km from North America (Canada).
The island of Terceira, which has already been a stopover for merchant shipping for centuries, is also home to the archipelago’s oldest airport, TER, which is now mainly used as a military airfield by the Portuguese air force and other Nato members – or as an emergency airport for trans-Atlantic flights.
When a long-haul aircraft was forced to opt for the latter solution, due to engine failure, the onward journey for the ‘Dreamliner’ remained a dream for the time being, as TER doesn’t have the necessary (project) cargo infrastructure. Planespotter images suggest that the aeroplane concerned was an Avianca Boeing B787 that departed Bogotá for London on 26 September
To procure a replacement, charter broker Air Partner was contacted. The planning of a logistics solution for the complicated challenge took four weeks and the execution another four days.
The goals were achieved through close collaboration between the international aviation service provider’s offices in the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
Completing the airport infrastructure
A Boeing B747 freighter first transported an operational engine from the USA, specifically from Miami FL, to Luxembourg. There an Antonov AN-124 was already ready, waiting to take on additional crucial loading equipment, including an empty frame, a lifting beam, a 47 t mobile crane as well as other tools.
With a total of 75 t of cargo on board the Antonov Airlines aircraft then flew to the Azores, where its own loading equipment was of great use during the transhipment – both in terms of unloading the new engine as well as the loading of the defective one.
The latter, together with the empty frame and the mobile crane, were flown to London Stansted airport. Whilst the external equipment was returned to its current temporary base in the EU (Leipzig airport), the engine was loaded onto a truck that travelled through the Channel Tunnel to Amsterdam, with the oversized sensitive cargo en route for its onward journey to a maintenance site.
“We have access to all types of aircraft, which enables us to solve logistics problems of any size,” said Jack Burt, vice-president for US freight at Air Partner. “The AN-124 was ideal for this charter, and the service from Antonov Airlines was excellent.”
Serhii Bilozerov, the commercial executive of the airline, thanked Air Partner for bringing his company in on this “very interesting and unusual project.” He didn’t forget that the challenges faced during the operation had put everyone involved under “a slight degree of stress”. In any case, the Avianca aircraft was able to leave the Azores on 6 November.