Air Charter Service founder and chairman, Chris Leach has been inducted into TIACA’s Hall of Fame, which celebrates people who have made a difference to air cargo.
Leach has worked in air cargo for over 40 years, starting his career with Saturn Airways where he was involved with charter flights.
He then worked for Transamerica Airlines where he coordinated aircraft in the 1980s during the great famine in Sudan, transporting personnel and aid.
Air Charter Service was founded in 1990 in the basement of his home in Kingston, and soon landed a number of key contracts including a deal with the United Nations following Somalia’s civil war transporting life-saving relief.
The company has moved from his basement to 22 offices worldwide, providing aircraft for almost 15,000 charters annually.
Much of the work involves transporting aid to disaster areas, including victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
Leach says: “I’d like to thank the entire ACS family, which is now almost 500 people, for their hard work and belief in what we do. And I’d like to thank you, my peers and TIACA, very much for this recognition – I’ve just been doing my day job.”
TIACA secretary general, Vladimir Zubkov says: “I can think of no one more deserving of this accolade than Chris, who started Air Charter Service from humble beginnings almost 30 years ago, only to watch it develop into the impressive multinational company it is today.”
Leach will be formally inducted into the Hall of Fame in a gala ceremony at the 2018 TIACA Air Cargo Forum, which takes place from 16 – 18 October in Toronto, Canada.
