History
The airline was established and started operations in 1972, as AirBridge Carriers at East Midlands Airport. The name Hunting Cargo Airlines was adopted in September 1992 and then changed to Air Contractors, following the acquisition of the airline by Compagnie Maritime Belge (51%) and Safair (49%) in June 1998, and a move to Ireland. It has expanded as a group to include aircraft leasing (ACL Aviation Support and Aircraft Trading both based in Southend, UK) and maintenance (Air Contractors Engineering, previously called Aeroscot, Edinburgh, UK).
Air Contractors has operated several types of cargo aircraft including the Boeing 727 and Airbus A300, as well as a number of turboprop platforms in support of its clients operations.
Air Contractors is a one of the largest operators of ATR42/72 series of turboprop aircraft, providing services to a range of clients, the largest of which being Fedex Express.
Air Contractors is the only operator of a civil registered Lockheed L-100 Hercules aircraft in Europe. The aircraft, EI-JIV, is based at East Midlands airport in the UK.
Air Contractors acquired French carrier Europe Airpost on 14 March 2008. Following the acquisition of EAP into the ACL group of companies, the group was rebranded ASL Aviation Group, representing the three core activities of the group; Airlines, Support and Leasing.
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“What has history to do with me? Mine is the first and only world! I want to report how I find the world. What others have told me about the world is a very small and incidental part of my experience. I have to judge the world, to measure things.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)