Chapman Freeborn draws on Dubai expertise to provide air charters in oil spill response

The global aircraft charter specialist has arranged flights departing from Europe and the Far East in response to the spill, drawing on the knowledge and experience of its Dubai office, which has a very close relationship with Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL), having worked with their Global Response Network team in Bahrain for over 15 years.

Chapman Freeborn’s UK office coordinated an initial cargo charter using a B747-400F aircraft to transport around 60 tons of technical oil spill equipment from East Midlands Airport in the UK to New Orleans.

A B747-200F charter, managed by the company’s Singapore team, also departed to New Orleans from Singapore with an additional 55 ton consignment.

Chapman Freeborn also arranged two further B747-200F charters to transport 80 tons of equipment from Qingdao, China, to New Orleans. Qingdao Airport (TAO) reported that the charters were the first time they have supported direct flights to the US.

 
Above: Specialist oil spill equipment is loaded on to a B747-200F.

Chapman Freeborn representatives attended the airports to help oversee the loading of the cargos and to ensure all flights left on time.

The company’s passenger charter expertise was also called upon by a Netherlands-based salvage specialist company who were dispatched to the region in the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater blow-out.

Chapman Freeborn’s Amsterdam office arranged for a Dassault Falcon 7X executive jet to transport a team of seven experts to New Orleans - arriving within hours of reports of the incident.

International response teams are using a variety of measures in attempts to manage the Deepwater Horizon spill, which covers an area of around 2,000 square miles and presents a major threat to the region’s eco-system as well as its economy.

Chapman Freeborn has 32 offices in 22 countries and provided over 5,000 aircraft charters last year.