Nine flights chartered by deugro for urgent pipe spool transport

Freight forwarder deugro chartered nine flights to urgently transport 37 pipe spools between Thailand and the US for the start-up of a new facility.

The components being transported had a total volume of 213 tonnes (1,628 cu m) and needed to be transported by road at both ends of the journey.

The spools were transported from a factory in the Rayong Province before being flown from U-Tapao Airport to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.

The forwarder said that ocean transport would normally be used for this type of product but the urgent requirements of the customer meant that air cargo was the favoured option to provide the shortest transit time.

There were also several other challenges, the company said.

Pavel Kuznetsov, head of air chartering, deugro, said: “With scarce capacities on the heavy lift air charter market caused by the war in Ukraine, the biggest challenge was locating and securing aircraft that could not only be available at the right place at the right time, but which also allowed for loading the oversized equipment with extremely odd dimensions and complex shapes, with lengths of up to 36.6 m, widths of up to 5.5 m and heights of up to 4.4 m.

“At the same time, the cargo’s requirements had to match the varying available aircraft types, loading equipment and airport capacities.”

For this purpose, deugro provided tailored packaging solutions, designed various safe and efficient loading concepts and sourced additional loading equipment.

The length of the spools also presented a challenge for the road transport element of the project.

When the truck and trailer is taken into consideration, the total length of the spools was 45 m. 

“To safely move and load these oversized components, appropriate loading and transport equipment had to be sourced and mobilized,” the company said.

“This included 80-metric-ton mobile cranes, main-deck loaders and various truck–trailer configurations.”

Kumphol Chatthong, deputy general manager, deugro Thailand, added: “To transport all components to U-Tapao airport according to schedule, and to ensure on-time loading of each aircraft and avoid delays, precise planning and preparation were essential.

“These included detailed road surveys and obstacle removals, timely organisation of all required permits, including gate passes and appropriate approvals for smooth entry of cargo, cranes and trailers into the airport, as well as the organisation of police escorts.”