Wendesday 23rd - Air Charter Service begins evacuation charters from Libya

Leading aircraft charter specialist, ACS, has had its first flight depart troubled Libya on Wednesday. The violent demonstrations in the African country have caused many to fear for their lives and flee by any means possible. With virtually no flights departing from Tripoli and with Benghazi airport closed, this is proving difficult. Matt Purton, Commercial Jets Director at ACS, explains some of the difficulties: “Yesterday afternoon [22nd Feb] only 2 landing permits for chartered flights out of the 457 registered had been granted. Our Dubai office managed to obtain one yesterday evening and has operated our first flight out of the country, on an Airbus A320, carrying almost two hundred Turkish citizens to Antalya this morning. And we now have permits for four more flights, all to operate today. Across our worldwide offices we have bookings in place for more than 3,000 people and are just waiting on those permits. We are pushing these through diplomatic channels as this appears to be the only way at the moment. “Following the violent protesting in Egypt we have helped evacuate more than 2,000 foreign nationals on chartered flights so far. As with the situation there, we are looking to take many people out of Libya to nearby safer havens such as southern Europe or the Middle East, and to continue their travel from there. Some are flying as far as the States and Asia though. “We’re just here to help get as many people out of the affected areas as we can.” Air Charter Service arranges more than 5,000 charters every year, incorporating tens of thousands of flights, on all aircraft - private jets, larger widebody airliners and cargo aircraft.