INDUSTRY FOCUSHUMANITARIAN LOGISTICS
damage, which put weight restrictions on incoming aircraft. Poor weather conditions and after-shocks from the quake compounded the difficulties. Some aircraft were forced to circle for one or two hours and finally had to return to Delhi to refuel. The shortage of landing slots prompted
the authorities to require loading lists to determine which flights would be given priority. “I have never seen that before,” said Dan Morgan-Evans, global cargo director of Air Charter Service.
Staff shortages Forwarders and charter brokers find it helpful to have their own staff on the ground to get a better picture of the situation and to liaise with the authorities and relief organisations. “If it is a big event, we try to send somebody out to see what exactly is going on, talk with the airport, help get slots and make representations to non- government organisations (NGOs),” Morgan-Evans said. “Every country has a team of officials
who are in charge. We try to get in touch with them to assess the situation,” remarked van der Stichele. “Limited infrastructure quickly gets
congested if relief goods pour into a crisis area in an uncoordinated manner – especially at the beginning of a crisis when every organisation tries to be first on the scene,” noted Robert Boetzer, head of corporate charter and emergency services at global logistics provider Panalpina. “This can mean that the really urgent and most important goods get stuck and cannot reach their intended destination.” “Information about the infrastructure has
to come from the assessment teams in the affected area. They will also tell you what is needed first. So it is crucial to first contact
Every country has a team of officials who are in charge. We try to get in touch with them to assess the situation. – Pierre van der Stichele, Chapman Freeborn
the assessment teams and to listen to them. After that you have to uphold thorough communication with the destination at every stage of the relief effort – from planning to actual delivery of the goods,” he continued. Air Partner chartered the AN-225, the
world’s largest commercial freighter, to carry mobile power stations to Japan after an earthquake. Despite its self-loading capability, this aircraft and the AN-124 are usually not among the first flights to reach an afflicted area. Typically they come in after the first wave of flights has brought in water and medical supplies and equipment. “The AN-124 is great for vehicles for relief organisations, for mobile hospitals and diggers,” remarked Morgan-Evans. Newer freighter models like the Boeing
747-8 or 777 allow their operators to maintain different temperature environments of 4°C-29°C in different cargo compartments, which helps with the
transportation of perishable medicines and food with cool chain requirements. AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC), the scheduled all-cargo airline of the Volga- Dnepr Group (which also fields AN-124s and IL-76s as well as smaller B737 freighters), recently gained its IATA CEIV certification for handling pharmaceuticals, noted Colon Miller, global director of the group’s humanitarian, government and defence programmes. “In addition, we have the capability to
provide active cargo containers, thermal blankets and reefer trucks if that is what our customers require,” he stated. Temperature-controlled facilities at
destination may well be relatively small, so such shipments may have to be broken down into smaller lots and flown in over several days, Gefco’s Cunnington added. Air Partner used special temperature-
controlled containers to take medicines to Sierra Leone. “We would unload one and fly back with the empty one from the flight before,” recalled Hill. The use of such units is rare though, except
in an epidemic like the Ebola crisis, which was a longer-term operation, Morgan-Evans pointed out. “It would be quite challenging in an emergency response situation to get these containers out again. In emergency response, an aircraft will be in and out fast to make room for the next plane coming in.” This makes retrieval of containers
challenging, remarked Boetzer. For a Boeing 747 freighter, a full set of unit load devices (ULD) can easily cost USD40,000, he said. Getting hold of freighter aircraft is usually
not an issue. “There is always something available,” commented Morgan-Evans. According to van der Stichele, sourcing an aircraft does not take long; however, it can take a few days before it can be deployed,
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