Air Charter Service prepares for Euro 2020 demand spike

Sep 9, 2019: Air Charter Service (ACS) predicts an extensive use of aircraft charters throughout next year’s Euro 2020 football tournament.

As the competition consists of 24 competing nations in 12 host cities, spanning the entire continent, the charter specialists says that it believes that aircraft charters will be essential for much of the tournament as there simply aren’t enough commercial airline connections to transport the sheer number of teams, sponsors, media and fans.

ACS, who has already booked a handful of flights, says that it will be ready for the influx of bookings. The company expects bookings to start in earnest after the initial group draw.

Matt Purton, Group Commercial Jets director at Air Charter Service said: “The championship is spread as far west as Dublin and as far east as Baku – a distance of almost 3,000 miles. It also stretches as north as St Petersburg and south as Rome. It will provide a unique logistical problem as it is the farthest-reaching football tournament ever. There are ‘intelligent’ city pairings for the group stage of the championship, but for non-host nations, your team could be playing anywhere – as will be the case for everyone once the Round of 16 matches start.

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The qualification format prior to Euro 2020 starting in June is complicated enough. Following the majority of qualification there will be an initial draw for the group stages later this year. However, the play-offs for the best third-placed teams in each group are not played until March next year. The Nations’ League results are also taken into consideration, before the potential of a final draw to be held on April 1 – as a result, there may be even less time for some teams to arrange their travel.”

Last year, the company arranged more than 350 aircraft charters for the FIFA World Cup in Russia.