Air Charter Service (ACS) recently arranged a charter into its 4,000th airport since 2013, spanning 191 different countries.
Chris Leach, chairman of ACS, noted that since the beginning of 2013, the aircraft charter broker has chartered aircraft into or out of 4,027 IATA or ICAO-recognised airports — along with thousands more dirt runways, ice runways, non-designated airfields, helipads and even water landings.
[Source: Air Charter Service]
ACS noted that to put this number into perspective, American Airlines operates 350 destinations in 63 countries, which is more than any other international airline.
"The airport that holds the honour of being our 4,000th is Cobar Regional in New South Wales, Australia. A couple of months ago, we moved mining workers on an ATR72 originating in Brisbane, but has dropped off half the passengers in Charleville en route," Leach said.
"We estimate that we have landed at around double the 4,000 shown on the map, including all other airfields. There are some notable airfields that our chartered aircraft have landed at, but that wouldn't be on the list or map," he added, noting that these include Black Rock City Airport in the middle of the Nevada desert and many airstrips in Africa that are used for safaris, and many airfields in Antarctica and Alaska that do not have codes.
"This year, we have had aircraft land at uncoded airports all over the world, such as in ChemChem in Tanzania, Gan Gan Outstation in Australia, Umaria in India and Stoltzfus Airfield in Ohio. Along with these, we have hundreds of helicopter charters that land at racecourses, music festivals and fields around the world," the ACS chief further said.