Air Partner helps amateur astronomers

                         
Air Partner has successfully operated a comet watching flight for 54 amateur astronomers.

The Group worked with Air Berlin to charter a Boeing 737-700 from Cologne/Bonn on March 16, 2013 which allowed the astronomers to travel approximately 12,500 metres closer to the PanStarrs comet. The comet was particularly visible on Saturday evening, with a range of about 160 million kilometres from the Earth.

Air Partner worked closely with Bonn-based Eclipse Travel, the leading travel agency for astronomy-related flights, on this project.

“We are delighted that we were able to successfully collaborate with Air Berlin and Eclipse to fulfil this extraordinary aircraft charter,” said Sergei Drobjasko, charter sales manager at Air Partner International, who was on board the flight. “There was considerable logistical organisation involved in this flight; we had to thoroughly clean the windows of the plane to ensure that the enthusiastic amateur astronomers were able to use their lenses and cameras effectively.”

Angela Weidenbach from Eclipse Tourism said, “Many thanks to our collegaues at Air Partner and Air Berlin for helping us to make this unusual flight possible. Their expertise has proved invaluable throughout the entire project.”

Karsten von dem Hagen, head of sales special flights at Air Berlin, said: “This comet flight was a first for us as well, but we felt that the whole operation ran well. The feedback that we have had from customers and from the guests on board has been extremely positive – so all in all a successful partnership!”