Embraer EMB-110 Bandeirante

Emergency Shipment to a Remote Populated Destination

When you call or submit a quote from our website, that communication is handled by an experienced air freight Expeditor who can immediately begin to formulate a plan to meet your needs, and will be your single point of contact until the completion of your shipment. Every time you call or message, your Expeditor will be there to provide answers to your questions or address any changes you need to make while the shipment is enroute 24/7. 
 
Not all casinos are located in populated areas that are easy to get to. In fact many are found in sleepy, remote areas visited by retirees and weekend visitors where the nearest large airport is more than two and a half hours away, and the primary access is the slower coastal highways or country roads.  

The Challenge

One such casino in a town of 11,000 people experienced a failure of one of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units on top of its hotel. While it was the middle of the week and occupancy was on the lighter side, a three-day weekend was approaching, and capacity was expected to be full. The current occupants could be moved to empty rooms in the unaffected areas of the hotel, but new customers would need rooms in perfect working order.

Not having experienced an emergency like an HVAC failure before, the new hotel manager consulted with the facilities maintenance department about the immediate repair of the failed HVAC unit. The chief engineer said the maintenance team had attempted repair on the unit, but it could not be repaired and would need to be replaced. The chief engineer found that the nearest replacement unit was a two-day drive by truck, but with this being an emergency with the coming weekend, they needed a door-to-door solution as fast as humanly possible. The supplier had recommended Airfreight.com to handle the ultra-critical shipment, so the engineer called Airfreight.com and was connected immediately with an Expeditor. 

How We Solve It

Based on the hotel’s urgent request to have the unit delivered as soon as possible, the Expeditor researched the particulars of the area and found the nearest international airport was a two and a half hours drive away and a second airport that served as a regional hub for aircraft as large as the Boeing 737 was two hours away. Taking a little time to research further for a closer airport, the Expeditor found a small public-use general aviation airport with a single 3,000 foot runway that was only 6 miles from the casino.

The Expeditor presented several options, and the engineer, with the approval of the hotel manager, chose the first option, which was the transportation of the unit from the supplier to the nearest airport, the dedicated cargo air charter from the supplier airport to the receiving airport, and transportation from the receiving airport to the hotel.  

While the Expeditor coordinated with the supplier to arrange for the pickup, and the trucks and aircraft to transport the cargo, the engineer was on the phone with a local short-haul helicopter company because the unit would need to be lifted onto the roof.  

Several hours later, the components that made up the HVAC unit were loaded by forklift onto the aircraft and secured for the three-hour ten-minute flight. During the flight, the Expeditor provided regular in-flight tracking updates so the hotel manager and engineer would know exactly when to expect the delivery. At the receiving airport, the pallets were loaded onto the waiting truck and transported to the hotel.

For a unit replacement that could have taken several days and resulted in weekend cancelations of hotel reservations and lost revenue at the casino, the job was completed in a little more than 24-hours thanks to the personalized attention and coordination by a dedicated, experienced Expeditor. 

Our Expeditors can direct the emergency carriers you need to get out of any logistical jam. Our resources span both the sky and the ground. Whether you have to transport something across the continent or just a few hundred miles, we’ll get the job done in less than a day. No matter the conditions you're facing, you can count on AirFreight.com to complete your delivery and keep your business in the black.