ACS Dubai coordinates visitors' trip to new place of worship
Posted on 1st September 2009
Dushanbe, Tajikistan
Bertrand d'Argoeuves, charter account manager ACS Dubai, recently performed a flight for a large group of religious followers to the grand opening of their new place of worship in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Initially Bertrand was asked to move 55 passengers on the route but, as news of the opening spread, the figure eventually reached 200 people, along with 4 tons of cargo. By this time Bertrand needed to use all his experience and knowledge to find the right aircraft - particularly difficult as some of the cargo was quite large. He located the ideal choice in a Boeing 757-200.
The next challenge was coordinating the schedules of the entire group as most of them were arriving from either Europe or the United States. Bertrand commented: “My biggest challenge was creating the perfect schedule - one that didn’t make passengers wait too long, and that was in time for other connecting flights”. Finally Bertrand and the airline had to liaise with the French military (who control Dushanbe airport traffic) for the landing permit, and to open the airport especially - despite it being closed to all other flights due to runway maintenance.
To ensure everything went off without a hitch, Bertrand sent an ACS flight representative to coordinate the complicated operation. Everything ran perfectly smoothly, and the grand opening was great success.