Recently, Bertling Air Freight Logistics handled a special kind of air freight transport: an Antonov AN124 air charter to Kazakhstan from Frankfurt Hahn Airport in Germany, which is quite rare. Early morning. Freezing temperatures. Five fully loaded heavy-duty trucks with special permits to travel overnight. Twenty tons of various oil and gas equipment. Our Kazakh customer was on site. Bertling’s air freight experts are ready to go. Our air freight partner, the AVICO Group, is ready for successful air transport. And one AN-124, exclusively chartered for one mission: to load and fly the oversized cargo just in time Aktau, Kazakhstan.
Comprehensive pre-planning
The cargo arrived from Netphen, a town near Siegen in western Germany, to Frankfurt Hahn Airport earlier in the evening. The goods, which were up to 4,25 m wide dish heads, baffles and elliptical heads were transported overnight based on a special permit and accompanied by security and convoy vehicles to ensure a safe journey.
Janine Seemke
Global Head of Airfreight
P: +49 40 32335554M:+49 173 3893139
E: janine.seemke@bertling.com
Our experts on site
With Bertling’s dedicated air freight product for heavy and oversized cargoes, B. Cargo, our air freight logistics experts, led by Janine Seemke (Global Head of Air Freight) and Tom Kansmeyer (Heavy-Lift Engineer), closely monitored the unloading of the cargo from the trucks and its loading into the massive AN-124 with the aircraft’s own cranes. Gulzhanat Zhasmagambetova, Project Manager from our Kazakhstan office, supervised the loading of cargo in Netphen and the loading of aircraft, while taking care of our customer, who was also at the airport.
Special lashing and securing measures were required to safely position the cargo inside the aircraft.
Read more about B. Cargo: https://www.bertling.com/logistics/air-freight/
Reliable partners are key
The loading supervision was done by our dedicated Air Freight Partner, AVICO Group, who specialize in sensitive and complex air freight operations around the globe. With their support the AN-124 was fully loaded without delay and ready for her journey to Kazakhstan.
We care for your air transport
We care about your air transport.
Our heavy-lift engineer, Tom Kansmeyer, sat in the aircraft and attended to it throughout the flight to Kazakhstan. This level of service and personal attention is part of our commitment to high-level customer service and is included in our air freight service offering.
The 5-hour direct flight from Frankfurt to Aktau went smoothly and arrived on time for unloading and onward transport to the Aktau oil platform.
We would like to thank our air freight experts, technical engineers, and air freight handling partners for their contributions to this successful air charter transport. We look forward to the next challenging operation.
About the AN124
The AN-124 is one of the largest aircraft in the world, specifically designed for carrying heavy or bulky cargoes. It is equipped with a high volume of cargo capacity, drive-on loading ramps and a variety of built-in freight handling equipment, including cranes.
This advanced, integrated on-board crane system designed for loading and unloading heavy and outsize cargo without needing specialized ground support. The system consists of two travelling cranes capable of lifting single pieces of cargo up to 30 tons.
Whether from major transit hubs in China to West Africa or from Belgium and Germany to Kazakhstan - our commitment to performance, precision, and partnership provides seamless end-to-end solutions even amid capacity constraints and tight timelines.
If you have urgent airfreight projects or year-end logistics challenges, don’t wait — let Bertling team deliver results you can count on.
Send your project requests and inquiries to inquiries.airfreight@bertling.com and our experts will tailor the best transport solution for your business.