Firm keeping essential cargo flying in to Birmingham
An air logistics business is flying in more than 20 tonnes of critical equipment into Birmingham Airport each weekday night, with many of the parts on board needed in the fight against Covid-19.
Carousel Logistics and Birmingham Airport have reached agreed an arrangement to safeguard Carousel’s time-critical air cargo network from Europe.
Carousel is keeping the UK connected with key manufacturing regions in mainland Europe, with its cargo planes landing in Birmingham carrying urgent parts, products and equipment.
In making this commitment to the airport, Carousel has ensured that it can continue to deliver items such as Covid-19 testing kits, personal protective equipment, high-tech medical devices, pharmaceuticals, as well as critical materials handling and agricultural spare parts on behalf of leading manufacturers.
With the reduction in scheduled services to and from Birmingham, due to the pandemic, the airport has reduced runway opening times but has continued to ensure it supports operations to meet demand for cargo, passenger and emergency flights. With Carousel’s commitment, the airport can continue to operate a reduced runway schedule whilst ensuring that fast and early morning deliveries, like those offered by Carousel’s nightly service, can also continue.
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Carousel flies in critical equipment each night from Frankfurt and Maastricht, for a range of industries including the Medical, Agricultural and Materials Handling sectors. A third-leg also runs onward from Birmingham into Dublin each evening.
Carousel co-founder and group chief executive, Graham Martin, said: “We’ve long held a motto at Carousel that we will do ‘Whatever It Takes, And More’ for our clients. Today’s announcement is the strongest example we could ever make to this ethos and I couldn’t be prouder.
“Each night, our flight moves potentially life-saving products, as well as critical parts required in the food production and distribution industry, so when we were faced with the possibility of delays to our services, we knew we had to do everything we could to keep them operating at the pace and efficiency our clients require. Delaying our service just wasn’t an option.
“Today’s announcement is testament to the great relationship we have with Birmingham Airport and our shared belief of doing whatever is necessary to keep critical services running in this challenging time. We’d like to thank them for their collaboration and ongoing support.”
Airport chief executive Nick Barton said: “Birmingham Airport is crucial to our region’s infrastructure and has remained operational throughout this pandemic to support in the transit of critical goods as well as emergency operations and passenger services.
“We are very proud to have been able to work with Carousel to agree an operational schedule to ensure its vital cargo provisions continue to be delivered into the region. Airports will be fundamental to the UK’s recovery and Birmingham Airport is ready to play its part in getting people and critical goods from around the world as and when demand returns.”
Birmingham is the UK’s third largest airport outside London and the UK’s seventh largest overall.
