AQUA Global Logistics Bahrain recently handled the shipping of 2 units Puma Helicopters from Bahrain to New Zealand.

AQUA’s role in this project comprised of

-       Identifying suitable carriers willing to carry the helicopters on a container ship. The height of the helicopters with the rotor blades intact made RORO a negative option as the ramp heights were lower than the Helicopter heights

-       Receiving the 2 units at the terminal in Bahrain from the shipper’s arranged transport service and safely offloading them to ground.

-       Design and fabrication of suitable support structures to hold the helicopter tyres in place on a flat rack .

-       Safe loading of each unit on flat racks in the terminal as per the pre-approved load plan submitted by our appointed surveyor’s office.

-       Coordinate with the terminal and shipping line for the movement of the unit’s alongside the vessel during it’s call at Bahrain Port.

-       Safely ensure the loading of each unit under deck on a bed of 9 flats. 

As per the advice of the shipping line, this is the first time that they were loading HELICOPTERS with rotor blades intact on their vessels and it was also the first time that such a shipment was handled from Bahrain Port.

We worked very closely for over 3 months since early November when the enquiry was first floated in the market and after several rounds of changes/loading plans got to a final arrangement with ANL ( part of the CMA-CGM Group ) who carried this project as breakbulk on their container ship from Bahrain. Shipment is safely transhipped ex Jebel Ali and en route to Singapore for further transhipment and on-carriage to Auckland.

I am attaching some photos for your perusal and hope you can carry this as part of your news letter soon.

We wish to thank our client for imposing their faith in AQUA and asking us to handle this on their behalf. We also are thankful to CMA-CGM’s regional Project Cargo team in Dubai, APL Bahrain & APMT Terminals Bahrain without whose support this project would not have been executed flawlessly.