AN-124s deployed by deugro for time-sensitive petrochemical plant delivery

Source: deugro

Deugro, a project specialist forwarder, delivered thirteen plant components to Saudi Arabia in seven days via three consecutive AN-124-100 air charter flights from Italy and Belgium. A Saudi Arabian petrochemical plant needed the components immediately to prevent a production line shutdown.

Short Time Frame

"In close collaboration with the teams from deugro Italy, deugro Saudi Arabia, and deugro Air Chartering, the project was completed in such a short period of time to minimize extremely costly downtime," the company said.

Cargo Details

The time-sensitive cargo units contained heat exchange equipment with a total volume of 811 cubic meters and a total weight of 252,216 kilograms, including convection modules measuring 1,100 x 310 x 340 centimeters and weighing 54,500 kilograms.

Aircraft Challenges

Due to the size of the heat exchanger modules, only Antonov aircraft were able to transport them. However, the biggest challenge was securing the necessary aircraft in time following the outbreak of the military conflict in Ukraine, which had a significant impact on the heavy lift market and led to the loss of the AN-225 aircraft, according to the company.

Additional Scope

"While the heat exchanger modules, which were the primary scope of the shipment, were picked up from a supplier in Italy near Milan, the plant operator requested on short notice an additional delivery of a fan casing from another supplier in the Netherlands, which was added during a stopover at Ostend-Brussels Airport in Belgium," explained deugro.

Flight Details

The first two flights from Italy to Saudi Arabia carried a total of three packages weighing 86.81 and 71.50 tons, respectively. The third flight carried three packages weighing a total of 67.50 metric tons, which were loaded in Milan, and four packages weighing a total of 26.41 metric tons, which were loaded at Ostend-Bruges Airport.

Air Charter Solution

"Due to the urgency of the schedule, air charter was chosen to provide the quickest transit time. This allowed Joost Maranus, senior project coordinator at deugro, to select airports of origin and destination as close as possible to the supplier locations and the plant site, and to schedule the flights according to the manufacturing schedules (Netherlands).

Loading and Offloading

Several modules were too heavy to be lifted by the AN-124-on-board 100's crane, so loading and offloading had to be accomplished using the carrier's special loading ramps and external mobile cranes, which deugro arranged at the origin and destination airports.

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