Charters answer Horn of Africa’s call

CHARTER brokers are seeing a huge increase in demand for charters to carry desperately needed humanitarian aid for the starving people of Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia.

Air Charter Service sent its first aid flight on 19 July carrying cargo such as tents from Asia and medical supplies from Europe. It has been sending either a 747 or an MD-11F once a day or every other day since.

“North eastern Kenya has experienced the added hardship of growing numbers of refugees – every day between 1,000 and 1,500 Somalis cross the Kenyan border to the largest refugee settlement in the world, Dadaab, where there are already close to 400,000 people. The medical supplies are desperately needed, and the tents that we are bringing in will go some way to helping to house these extra people.” Justin Lancaster, cargo sales director for ACS Group, commented.

Since 24 July Chapman Freeborn Airchartering has overseen the delivery of hundreds of tons of relief cargo from Europe and the Middle East on behalf of charities and international aid agency clients.

Aid cargo has been flown into airports including Nairobi (Kenya), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Mogadishu (Somalia) utilising full and part charters on IL-76, 767 and 747 aircraft.