Airlink had a busy year in 2017 providing lift for charities providing disaster relief around the world, and is looking to build new partnerships across the aviation spectrum to further its important work.
“Over the last year we’ve been very busy with all the hurricanes, and we’ve sent more relief workers than ever before, around 500 relief workers,” Airlink president and chief executive Steven Smith tells FlightGlobal during the IATA AGM in Sydney.
But the need continues to grow. Smith says that there are 14 million people in need of ongoing humanitarian aid, “more than at any time since World War II”, and the nonprofit sector is struggling to keep up.
By working with airlines to provide cargo and passenger capacity to move aid and relief workers into disaster zones, Airlink helps relief agencies to scale up their operations and focus on delivering assistance.
Smith says that Airlink is focusing on gaining some level of pre-committed capacity from airlines around the world to allow aid agencies to be able to respond quickly when disasters strike.
He acknowledges that the charity has already strong support from the global airline industry, which has helped to transport aid workers to affected regions.
“We’ve moved a lot of people into the Caribbean, we’re moving a lot of people into Bangladesh for the Rohynga refugee crisis and other places around the world, but having that pre-committed capacity would be tremendous.”
Source: Cirium Dashboard
