The freight division of Air Partner plc, the global aviation services group, was recently called upon by a national humanitarian organisation to assist with the safe and speedy delivery of food and supplies to Juba in South Sudan, a country which currently hosts one of the largest number of refugees in the world. Over the course of three weeks, Air Partner’s Freight division chartered a total of 18 flights from the United States to Juba, via Entebbe in Uganda, to transport more than 400 large pallets of non-perishable food, weighing over 400 tonnes. Eight of these flights were operated on Boeing 747s and ten on Ilyushin IL-76s. Speed of response was crucial to this project, so Air Partner’s Freight team worked around the clock to mobilise and deliver this time-critical cargo successfully to the people of South Sudan.
Jack Burt, Vice President of Air Partner’s U.S. Cargo division, said: “Air Partner is committed to providing relief in times of crisis. In order to ensure that every aspect of this project was as seamless as possible, members of our Freight team were stationed on the ground at Entebbe airport to provide expert supervision. With the current prolonged conflict and economic instability in South Sudan, we are fortunate to be able to help deliver such an important commodity that can have a direct impact on the people of the region.”
Air Partner has over 55 years of experience in humanitarian support and recovery. During Hurricane Matthew in 2016, the company transported 40 tonnes of aid supplies to Haiti and helped evacuate over 70 employees of a private bank in Nassau, Bahamas, to Atlanta.
Air Partner also delivered 600 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan devastated the region, and 300 tonnes to Nepal in the aftermath the 2015 earthquake. In 2018, Air Partner completed more than 30 flights in less than 30 days in the wake of Super Typhoon Yutu, and also coordinated the transport and delivery of more than 2,000 tonnes of relief cargo from the United States to Guam.
