Delivering Aid At Right Place Right Time

The air freight industry as part of numerous relief efforts has proved its worth time and again. For carrying out relief operations, the response and communication between parties must not only be prompt and concise, they must also be accurate. It is crucial for humanitarian organisations and air cargo industry to work in tandem to ensure aid reaches survivors at right place in right time.

- Shreya Bhattacharya

The 2017 Atlantic hurricane season will be remembered as one of the worst in the hurricane seasons list in the history. Just as Harvey took a moment after wreaking havoc in Houston, Irma, a record Category 5 storm, set off on a collision course with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Hurricane Maria soon after left a broken Caribbean, upending the lives of millions. No wonder, the ferocity of the epic trio dominated the news in the second half of 2017 highlighting the vulnerability of humans to natural and manmade disasters.

When such kind of massive calamity strikes, the best of mankind’s traits come to the fore as people from all corners come out to help and contribute with massive aid and relief supplies for the survivors. One of the most challenging roles here is played by the logistics industry, which takes the daunting task of delivering these relief materials to the calamity stuck regions at the earliest. Humanitarian logistics is all about the management of essential commodities like food, water, fuel, which is all consumed rapidly in the affected area just before and after a major event. While it is important to have a logistics and emergency plan already in place for such crisis, one cannot really predict the nature of damages that can occur and therefore actions are taken impromptu and can be challenging.

American Airlines Cargo, which actively got involved in relief operations in Houston, shared its experience. “The biggest challenges came from the sheer size of the disasters, as well as the enormous number of people needing help. Once donations started pouring in, our task became identifying the best ways to transport and distribute relief supplies,” said David Vance, vice president Cargo Operations, American Airlines Cargo.