Leading aircraft charter specialist, Air Charter Service, has reported a strong first half of the year for all three of its divisions in both revenue and charter numbers.

Chairman, Chris Leach, observes: “The figures across the board make pleasant reading. Every department – private jets, commercial airliners and cargo – has grown by more than 10% in terms of number of charters, and our overall revenue increased by 10% to £135m ($230m) for the six months ending July 31st.

“Commercial Jets is our ‘newest’ division and therefore, understandably, had the largest increase in terms of growth which justifies our strong investment in staffing and technology, with plans to expand this offering to some of our offices which currently do not have commercial jet specialists.

“Our Cargo department appears to have recovered well from 2013, which I think everyone in the industry would agree, was a bad year for the overall market and, after a slow start to the year, charter numbers are up by 22% year on year at this stage.

“Whilst some offices in our Private Jet division have grown more than others around the world, the growth is very evenly spread, with no market-driven particular variances of note, but overall a pleasing increase of 10.2% in number of charters.

“The results also show much stronger growth in the second quarter. If the trend of the past three months continues into the second half of the year, we are on course to enjoy our record year in revenue and sales.

“I feel that these results reflect our continuous investment in our global infrastructure. We have hired top talent around the globe and developed our IT systems and product offerings, as well as opening new offices – most recently Houston in May. It is extremely pleasing to see these investments pay off.

“I believe that if we continue to invest in the same way as we have been, we will achieve our ultimate aim of becoming the largest charter brokerage house in the world across all three sectors in the next five or ten years.”