Air Charter Service has had its busiest year for emergency humanitarian flights in several years in 2023, sending aid and carrying out evacuations for natural disasters and civil unrest.
Director of humanitarian and government services, Ben Dinsdale commented: “There are humanitarian projects and development efforts that are constantly going on, but unfortunately last year saw a more occasions than usual where we have had to activate our specialist humanitarian task forces around our global offices in response to an emergency.”
The year started with the earthquake in Turkey and Syria in February. The day after it struck, ACS flew German and British search and rescue teams to the region, as well its own representative to ensure the smooth operation of the charters that followed. In all, the broker arranged charters for more than 2,000 tonnes of relief cargo, on aircraft including Boeing 737s, 747s, 757s and 777s, Airbus A300s and A330s, and Ilyushin 76s. The cargo included shelters, tents, blankets, food and drink supplies, as well as the field hospital.
Dinsdale continued: “In April, following civil war in Sudan, our response teams in the US, Europe and Middle East were all called into action to evacuate people from the country. Following these evacuations we chartered aircraft over the next month to fly in a large amount of aid, for those displaced by the troubles.”
In June, Typhoon Mawar hit the US territory of Guam in the Western Pacific, and ACS teams from North America moved humanitarian cargo including generators, water tanks, tractors and trucks. Then, in August, wildfires spread across Hawaii and it was another extremely busy time for the North American offices, flying in aid, as well as three charters with mobile phone towers to Maui.
Two major events happened within days of each other in September - the Moroccan earthquake and then the floods that followed Storm Daniel in Libya.
Very few charter flights were needed for Morocco, so attention was focussed on Libya, where ACS flew in more than 500 tonnes of aid, including tarpaulins, tents, sleeping bags and water purification tablets.
Dinsdale concluded: “This list by no means covers all of the emergency humanitarian charters that we did in 2023, but gives an idea of the breadth of charters arranged across the globe. Whilst the majority of the work in my role is supporting longer term relief and development projects, which is ongoing, I am proud that our skillsets can be put to good use in these emergency situations and help out in such tragic circumstances.”
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