Challenge Group announced that it operated a total of 90 flights in 2022, or around two charters per week, to all kinds of destinations around the world, carrying various commodities.

The charters transported humanitarian aid, relief, life-saving goods, vulnerable artworks, essential energy/oil & gas equipment, crucial music stage equipment, wonderful live animals, the freshest of perishables, life-saving pharma and Covid vaccines and automotive.

"Having multiple Air Operator Certificates makes Challenge Group very flexible. We use whichever option enables us to fly the shortest possible route in the interests of time, costs for the customer, and sustainability," said Edward Micallef, general manager of Challenge Air Cargo.

When arranging the charter flight, Challenge Air Cargo noted that it endeavours to avoid empty return runs wherever possible and to feed those return sectors into Challenge Group's scheduled flights.

End-to-end operations

"What sets Challenge Group's charter operations apart from its peers is its end-to-end operations offer, from arranging trucking at origin to building up the cargo, loading it onto a Challenge aircraft, flying it to destination, unloading it and then delivering it by truck to its end-destination, which could also be a to-door service," Challenge Group said of its operations.

It added that customers can track-trace their charter shipments in the same way as they would a shipment on Challenge Group's scheduled flights.

"Our services are available to commercial entities as well as all NGOs, government institutions, and other such organisations," Micallef said.

Challenge Group noted that it is also often called upon to fly relief goods.

It said that the fastest charter arrangement ever carried out by Challenge Group was the transport of humanitarian aid from the US to Poland, which we executed in just 48 hours. Just hours after the devastating news, Challenge Group was also already planning slots and routes to multiple airports in Turkey, on call at any moment.

Challenge Group said the main charter routes are usually between the EU and the US, as well as the US to the Middle East or China to the EU.