Maersk Line’s new E-class vessel, built in Korea, has been getting a lot of recent press as the cleanest ever container vessel, and more importantly the largest. Its capacity in TEU is simply mammoth . Despite it’s size, this is still a vessel sailing on the sea; indeed its “green” factor necessitates slow steaming.

So it won’t break any records for getting that very urgent shipment to a faraway corner of the world.

What happens if there is a need for a sizeable amount of cargo , for a remote location , and there is either not enough time to wait for a container ship or there is insufficient port facilities to handle a large vessel ?

It’s time to charter a plane. A big, big, big plane.

The Boeing 747 is pitifully small, and the A380 is not much better.

The Russian built Anatov aeroplanes are a truly impressive machine; whenever they are written about, the authors seem to turn to a thesaurus to find a new word to describe their size . Whenever they are actually seen, people cannot look away. This can be a bit dangerous when driving around the airport !

Being lucky enough to work near an airport, and hence see aeroplanes taking off and landing each day, I guess that I have become maybe a bit too used to them.

In the last week however, Australia’s government reached an agreement with the Papua New Guinean government to settle all refugees arriving by boat in PNG, not in Australia. Leaving any political debates aside, the infrastructure now needed in PNG is vast . Buildings, machinery, and spare parts must now make their way to PNG as soon as possible.

A specialist logistics company, based in Brisbane, has been engaged to organise and oversee the transport of necessary cargo using charted Anatovs; over the last week in Brisbane, 3 of these aircraft have flown out laden. One was parked near where I work ( I drove past it on my way in and again on my way home ) and must have taken days around the clock to pack. And the sound when they take off was so loud ! Only regret is that I didn’t get a good photo…had to use one found on the net.