meeting the emergency
airline’s Hong Kong hub, to Pakistan on a special freighter flight. Cathay Pacific staff in Karachi and at the airline’s local agent in Pakistan have each contributed one day’s salary to help victims of the flooding in the country. The inaugural operational flight of the A330-200
freighter that recently joined the fleet of Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Crystal Cargo took place on 28 August this year – and it was a very special charter carrying medical and humanitarian supplies to flood-stricken Pakistan. Finally, the flood-stricken country’s flag-carrier Pakistan
Airlines immediately offered free cargo space on its flights for goods being donated around the world to help an estimated 20 million people in the airline’s home country who have been affected by the massive scale of the flooding.
VOLGA HELPS OUT In terms of airline response, Russia-based freighter operator Volga-Dnepr has been one of the biggest providers of airlift to governments and relief agencies over the past 20 years, delivering emergency aid to victims of disasters all over the world. Many of its AN-124 and IL-76 aircraft are modified from former military equipment designed to handle
rough terrain landings and take-offs on short or even unmade airstrips while carrying a full cargo load. Both types of aircraft
have rear loading ramps and the roll-on, roll-off capability of the AN-124 afforded by its raised nose door and an ability to ‘kneel’ on its front undercarriage enables wheeled vehicles to be driven straight off the aircraft on arrival. This makes it a popular choice with governments and aid agencies that keep fully-loaded all-terrain vehicles at their logistics hubs ready for rapid deployment to areas where the whole ground infrastructure might have been wiped out or temporarily immobilised. One of the first moves handled by Volga-Dnepr in
response to the Pakistani flooding came at the end of August when it flew a120-tonne capacity AN-124 freighter into Islamabad from Germany’s Leipzig/Halle airport
AIR LOGISTICSCHINA 45
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