A specialist time critical logistics company was on pole position to contribute to the Austrian Grand Prix recently after landing a very important charter flight right next to the famous Red Bull Ring.
BDA (Bespoke Distribution Aviation) successfully delivered important race car body panels and several race car parts for a Formula One team in time for the start of the race. The parts, manufactured from carbon fibre, were collected from Luton Airport in the UK by BDA's Frankfurt based Short 360 aircraft, and delivered to an ex-military airport right next to the Red Bull Ring where the race took place. The entire process, from the Frankfurt to Luton flight, collection of the cargo, positioning to Zeltweg Airport in Austria, and final mile delivery was completed in under eight hours, and the cargo offloaded and delivered at track-side.
BDA actively started offering Europe-wide air cargo charter flights from mid-2013 when they acquired German freight airline NightExpress but already they are providing a vital lifeline for companies that require immediate transportation of emergency orders, particularly in the automotive, machine spares, and medical and pharmaceutical industries. The company's charter flights can be launched within 90 minutes of a charter being confirmed and as BDA's Managing Director, Kevin Turner, explained, they are a quick and immediate solution for carrying urgent, time critical cargo.
"We undertake regular charter flights to airports Europe-wide but, as you can imagine, this flight was very exciting for us. In order to successfully land the cargo as close to the track as possible, we had to land in an ex-military airport and because the cargo was lightweight, weighing in at just 235kg, we had to be very careful in both the handling and movement of the freight."
BDA, which operates from Coventry Airport in the UK, has three other European gateway hubs for both air and road linehaul routes in Frankfurt, Maastricht and Dublin, all with urgent charter flight capabilities. With local management and self-handling at these strategic placed European airports, the company offers charters for cargo that has a maximum weight of 3,200 kg with volume capacity of up to 40m².
"Charter flights like this one demonstrate how useful this service is to manufacturers and freight forwarders requiring urgent time-critical deliveries across Europe," Kevin Turner added.
"It was crucial that we had the entire operation intricately planned to ensure that the cargo arrived in Austria in advance of the Grand Prix so all the relevant pre-race preparations could be made. Without the resource of a chartered flight, this immediate same-day delivery could not be guaranteed and this could have affected the arrival time at Zeltweg Airport, and ultimately could have affected the race."
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