Tons, not pounds. (Air Foyle Ltd.'s freight forwarding business)

Air Foyle's AN124-100 freighters can airlift awkward cargoes weighing more than 100 tons.

LONDON

Most air-cargo carriers think in pounds, not tons.

Air Foyle is different. The U.K.-based company, using Antonov AN124-100 Ruslan freighters originally designed for the Soviet military, specializes in big, awkward shipments that most carriers shy away from.

In 1993, for example, Air Foyle arranged the transportation of a 124-ton power Siemens generator from Dusseldorf, Germany, to New Delhi, India. The cargo was so large it had to be escorted by police from Mulheim to Dusseldorf, and took more than 10 hours to load onto the chartered plane.

In 1994, the company transported a fully assembled 3,200-horsepower diesel locomotive weighing 109 tons from London. Ontario, to Dublin, Ireland. The total weight of the shipment, which included metal bridging equipment to facilitate loading and unloading, exceeded 146 tons.

Last July, Air Foyle undertook a charter on behalf of Electro Peru, the …