Transporting Covid medicine to a remote island
In June 2020, Air Charter Service was asked by a medical courier to help transport Covid-19 medicine needed for vaccine research from Montreal to a French island territory located off Canada’s eastern coast.
The freight had already travelled from Paris on a commercial flight and a charter was needed to complete its journey, so we needed to find a suitable aircraft that could carry cargo internationally and land on the island’s short runway.
Our Solution
Route: Montreal > Saint-Pierre
Aircraft: Pilatus PC-12
Within an hour of receiving the request, our award-winning cargo team had sourced an available Pilatus PC-12 that could easily land on Saint-Pierre’s short runway. We also quickly secured the permit needed to transport cargo on the requested route. The operating airline didn’t have a registered three-digit carrier code for the Airway Bill Prefix, so we worked with the client’s customs broker and the airline to secure a temporary code.
The Finer Details
Attention to Detail: We chose a Quebec-based airline, ensuring there were French-speaking pilots and operations personnel who could liaise with the customs agent in Saint-Pierre.