Air Partner Delivers Over 400 Tonnes Of Aid To Iraq
The team at Air Partner continues to work around the clock to deal with enquiries coming in about Iraq as the situation remains unstable.
Since the crisis started, Air Partner has been tasked with maintaining supplies of shelters, emergency food, water treatment and water storage units to the military aircraft which are flying missions to air drop these supplies into the region. In addition, Air Partner has arranged for the delivery of essential kit and specially adapted vehicles for use in dangerous situations to ensure aid workers can work quickly and safely on the ground.
Over the past two weeks, Air Partner has chartered 9 flights; 6 from the UAE, one from Cyprus and two from East Midlands to Iraq using Airbus A300 and A310 aircraft. The team also chartered Douglas MD11F, Iluyshin 76 and Antonov 12 aircraft to deliver goods from the UK and Dubai into the air operations hub in Cyprus used by the Royal Air Force. Since 10 August, Air Partner has now delivered over 400 tonnes of aid to Iraq, with this figure expected to increase in the coming days with continuing requests.
Air Partner has also received multiple requests for evacuations out of Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region. On 9 August, the Group chartered an Embraer Legacy 650 long-range jet, on behalf of a corporate client, to evacuate 13 passengers from Erbil to Amman in Jordan, and a Boeing 737-300 to transport 39 further passengers from Erbil to Istanbul in Turkey.
Richard Smith, Air Partner’s Director for Freight, commented, “Air Partner’s teams have been working non-stop to find the fastest and most cost effective solutions to move these life-saving materials. We are used to reacting very quickly to humanitarian situations like this; conditions can change hour by hour – which means lead times are usually very short. As a result, our clients need a 24 hour capability; something that the team at Air Partner can deliver 365 days a year. Our network of global offices also means that we can scale up our response very quickly – for instance during the Arab Spring we moved 12,000 people and 300 tonnes of aid in just 6 weeks.”
Air Partner has significant aid and crisis experience – last year the Group transported 600 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan devastated the region. While during the Arab Spring of 2011, which coincided with several natural disasters, Air Partner worked around the clock to evacuate more than 12,000 people from across Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Japan and New Zealand, in just six weeks.
Air Partner is a valued supplier to many national and international organisations and provides aviation solutions to corporates and governments worldwide, including six of the G8 group of governments, NGOs and aid agencies, as well as international and UK royalty.
