We have been glued to the action at Milano Cortina and were thrilled to help a group of sports fans with an urgent same-day aircraft charter for their trip to the Winter Olympic Games.
We were contacted by a Nordic travel agency on Thursday, who had been left without flights for their group of 40 fans due to late-notice Lufthansa strikes. The group were due to fly from Stockholm (ARN) to Munich (MUC), to meet their onward transportation to the games.
Tom Pillings, Aircraft Charter Broker, received the urgent charter request at 08.30 and the aircraft departed Stockholm Arlanda Airport less than 10 hours later.
Tom said, “We regularly work on urgent charters. This one was particularly quick as our client had been let down by the cancellation of their scheduled flights at very short notice. Our established relationships with European operators enabled me to source and present two aircraft options to our client within an hour.
All the operational elements of the flight were managed and brought together quickly to enable the flight to go ahead later that day.”
The group flew on a Bombardier CRJ 900 regional jet, operated by our trusted partners Global Reach Aviation. With a cabin seating capacity of up to 78 passengers, the fans had plenty of space to enjoy the two-hour flight to Munich without any delay.
Regional jets are ideal for whole aircraft charter for small groups, and we frequently charter this type of aircraft on behalf of our clients for a whole range of reasons, including MICE travel, specialist tour operations, sports travel and more.
Lufthansa, the German flag carrier, cancelled nearly 800 flights due to a coordinated pilot and cabin crew strike, affecting roughly 100,000 passengers across Germany and Europe on Thursday, 12th February 2026.
With over 20 years of experience in aircraft charter for sports travel, our expertise was recognised in 2025 when Smart Aviation became a Partner Member of i.s.t.a.a. (International Sports Travel Agencies Association), joining a global network dedicated to advancing sports tourism.
For aircraft charter enquiries, contact our team via [email protected]
