A manufacturing company needed our help returning a 21-tonne part to South Africa after undergoing repairs in Germany.
Moving a heavy manufacturing part
A manufacturing company needed our help returning a 21-tonne part to their press mill in South Africa after undergoing repairs in Germany. Production was at a standstill while the part was being fixed and the scheduled service flying it back had been cancelled. We had just two days before the planned departure date to find an alternative solution.
Our Solution
Route: Dusseldorf > Liege > Johannesburg
Aircraft: Boeing B747F
A specialist cargo aircraft was needed to load the part, which was too large and heavy to fit through a side door. We also didn’t have time to obtain approval to fly to Johannesburg.
Drawing on our industry contacts, we sourced a Boeing B747F with nose-loading capability from an operator in Belgium who already had the necessary permit.
Working with our ACS Time Critical team in Frankfurt, we arranged a heavy-duty truck to drive the cargo from Dusseldorf to Liege, where it was successfully loaded through the aircraft’s nose.
The Finer Details
Industry Knowledge: We were able to carefully select an operator who had both a suitable aircraft and a Foreign Operator Permit, which we needed to fly to South Africa.