The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race is Alaska’s iconic endurance test of man and dog. It first took place in its current form (running around 1000 miles from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska), in 1973, with 36 sled teams of 12-14 dogs participating. 22 teams made it to the finish – the fastest being Dick Wilmarth’s ‘Musher’, winning after a 20-day-long race. The annual event now sees between 40-70 teams participating with around 700-1,000 dogs in total. This year, Air Charter Service helped to get 36 of those huskies to the starting line in Alaska, for the race which began ceremoniously on 07MAR26 and then for real on 08MAR26, continuing through to 17-22MAR26. The second-time winner – a local Musher by the name Jessie Holmes and his “Team Can’t Stop”, took just 9 days and 7 hours to complete the distance, this year.
The 36 huskies and their handlers were flown from Oslo, Norway, to Anchorage, USA, in good time and with the care required for such precious cargo.
Dan Morgan-Evans, Group Cargo Director at ACS, revealed: “We were approached by a group of Norwegian competitors taking part in Iditarod – ‘The Last Great Race’, a 1,000-mile, 10-day, sled race from Anchorage to Nome in Alaska. Flying so many dogs involved a number of obstacles, including finding an airline that was happy to perform the flight, and that could fly directly without a fuel stop, in order to prevent any added time that the huskies would have to spend in transit. We identified a Boeing B757-200F as the ideal aircraft – the payload was less than two tons, as it was just the dogs and their equipment, including dog food, vitamins, harnesses, and camping gear. The next challenge was to arrange for the handling agent in Oslo to bring in extra staff, securing an outdoor space for the dogs to stretch their legs before the flight, and ensuring we had all the correct health documents to operate (36 passports, 36 rabies certificates, 36 health certificates, and 36 CDC Permits for the U.S. customs). One of our cargo team flew with the aircraft, the dog handlers and the huskies, to ensure everything went smoothly at both ends – we had secured airside access in Anchorage, so that the dog handlers could drive up to the aircraft and load the dogs for their short onward journey. Following the successful race, the dogs flew to Seattle on another charter, this time on a McDonnell Douglas MD-83F, before picking up their ride back to Europe on a scheduled flight.”
