Neo and Blue Water manage Iceland pipe repair 

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Monday, 04 March 2024

Neo Air Charter and its customer Blue Water Shipping recently delivered pipes needed to repair Iceland’s critically important geothermal community heatinginfrastructure.
Some 20,000 households on the Reykjanes Pensinsula had endured -15 degree temperatures after repeated earthquakes caused eruptions of the Fagradalsfjallvolcano, leading to lava flows that damaged the local underground heating pipe network.

Bluebird Airlines B737F operated the emergency flight from Cologne to Keflavik.
Staff also arranged ground transport for the 90-minute journey from the pipe manufacturer to the departure airport, and the trucks were on-site and ready toload early the next day.

Despite cargo handler - and Customs - staff shortages caused by a local public holiday and an error in the declared size of the packages, Neo had the palletsbroken down, with 1,000 boxes of pipes individually X-rayed and re-packed onto 41 pallets, and then the shipment loaded onto the waiting freighter.

The goods arrived in Keflavik the same evening.

“This was one of those jobs where we hit one obstacle after another, but – through perseverance and close collaboration with all parties - it all worked out finein the end,” said Brian Davis, general manager Neo.

“We’d like to particularly thank both dnata for putting an extra team on the job at extremely short notice, and Customs in Cologne for giving the complexprocedures for this critically urgent, high-value shipment their top priority.”