Air Charter Service opens third Australian office

Aircraft charter specialist Air Charter Service, has opened a new office in Perth, the company’s third operation in Australia. The office opened on 1 September. Justin Bowman, Air Charter Service’s CEO, commented: “Following the outstanding success of our offices in Sydney and Brisbane, we have been looking to add a Western office for some time. Australia is an important market for us, and we are aiming to capitalise on Perth’s role as the country’s resource and energy capital, and the city’s strong overall economy. “Heading up the office will be the experienced Stephen Fernandez, who joined ACS almost 20 years ago. He enjoyed a successful spell in our London HQ before moving to Hong Kong and becoming Regional Director for ACS’s APAC offices, growing the business in the region considerably. We believe he is the right person to make this office a real success.” Fernandez said: “I can’t wait to get started here, and build a team – Australia is such a strong market for ACS, with our other two offices in the country performing very well and enjoying a 24% growth in revenue this year.” Air Charter Service gives half year sales update Air Charter Service said it has enjoyed an excellent first six months of the year, in which charter flights and turnover both saw double-digit growth, with revenues up 14% compared to the same period last year. Chris Leach, Chairman and Founder of ACS said: “We are delighted with performance across the board for the first half of the year [our financial year starts on February 1st], but particularly happy with private jets, which saw a 20% increase in revenue. Our underlying flight numbers have increased by around 10%, which is particularly pleasing when compared to the industry average, which only saw 2% growth over the first half of the year. Our top line growth in charter numbers is 45%, but that huge difference is due to a small number of large contracts we have won across different continents. These involve a high number of low value flights, which makes like-for-like figures incomparable to the same period last year. “Whilst not reaching the heights of private jet growth, revenue in our other two main divisions of cargo and group charter also grew, bringing revenue for the company in the first six months up by 14% to more than £455 million ($610 million),” Leach said. “Though group revenue has grown by 14%, it is worth acknowledging that there have been several non-repeatable events, that have perhaps slightly inflated this figure. These have included supply chain issues in Southeast Asia, Middle Eastern evacuations, and a large number of flights for an international sporting competition. However, despite these events, our underlying revenue growth is still more than our target of 10%, and our set up means we are well-placed to deal with events such as these, so we can’t discount them completely. Another pleasing figure is our EBITDA for the first half of 2025, which is on track for a 20-30% increase, if H2 continues on the same trajectory. Our growth plans are set to continue into the second half of the year with the openings of more offices. In the first six months of 2025 we have opened three new offices, in Milan, Montreal and Cologne, and we have plans for several more before the end of the year, including two imminent announcements.” For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Matt Driskill at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Head of Sales Kay Rolland at [email protected]