The International Air Cargo Association (TIACA) has made Chris Foyle, chairman and founder of Air Foyle, its newest member of the TIACA Hall of Fame.

"Chris was unanimously nominated and selected by members for his many years of innovative and professional leadership in the air cargo industry. We are extremely pleased to induct Chris into the TIACA Hall of Fame," said Dora Kay, chairwoman of TIACA's Chairman's Council.

Mr Foyle will officially receive the 2007 Hall of Fame award at TIACA's Executive Conference and AGM to be held in Cologne, Germany, from April 15-17, a TIACA statement said.

The TIACA Hall of Fame was established in 1997 to recognise and honour air cargo professionals who have played a role in the progress of aviation and who through their foresight, performance and dedication have created and grown the industry.

Chris Foyle has been active in the aviation industry for 30 years. His aviation career started when he began flying gliders at Dunstable while at Radley College and with the Royal Air Force cadets.

His company, Air Foyle, was founded in 1978 with one second-hand Piper Aztec that served cargo, passenger and aerial survey charters in the British Isles, operating the first regular overnight all-cargo service for courier company Skypak between the UK and Europe in 1979. Through this, Air Foyle became TNT's chief aircraft operator from 1987-2000, flying 65 per cent of its fleet of 10 freighters.

In 1989 Chris Foyle initiated a partnership with Antonov Design Bureau of the then Soviet Union, and became the exclusive sales agent in the western world for the charter and lease of Antonov 124 giant freighters operated by the Antonov Design Bureau of Kiev.

Air Foyle has carried an extraordinary variety of outsized cargo including fire fighting equipment for putting out fires in Kuwaiti oil fields at the end of the Gulf War, yachts in the Americas Cup race, oil drilling equipment, and Richard Branson's Round the World Hot Air Balloon.

Mr Foyle is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Liveryman of the Guild of Air Pilots, a Freeman of the City of London and he was just recently appointed chairman of the Air League and a trustee of the Foyle Foundation.