Airlink Presentation: Humanitarian flight operations - Why it matters
Transcript
Robyn Mandel:Well, Harrison Ford is a tough act to follow, but I'll do my best. Thank you so much to the CAPA team for making Airlink your charitable partner and allowing us to share our story today. In the course of my remarks, I'd like you to remember 2 key numbers: 73% and 60%. On average, 73% of humanitarian program funding is spent on supply chain management. In other words, transportation. 60% is the percentage of aid that is sent to a community in crisis that is not needed at the time it arrives in country. That figure applies to aid sent by governments, charities, and individuals. Airlink helps address both of these core issues within the disaster response sector. First, by providing free transport, Airlink removes the logistical challenges and high costs that nonprofit organizations face when responding to humanitarian crises. Our 150 nonprofit partners can take the transport cost savings and use their resources to buy more supplies and run more aid programs or extend deployment periods. Therefore, Airlink acts as a force multiplier. Secondly, Airlink's network of nonprofit disaster response partners are all vetted. We only provide support to partners who undertake genuine on-the-ground needs assessments and have the means to distribute the aid that that is being transported upon arrival. This is how Airlink ensures the right aid gets to the right places at the right time. Airlink can do this because of donations from individuals and businesses within the aviation sector and outside the aviation sector, and the— and importantly, the in-kind support we receive from our 50 airline partners. Among our biggest supporters are Qatar Airways, American Airlines, Turkish Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and our global signature lead, United Airlines. Everything we receive from the industry makes a difference. Some airlines provide large upfront donations of cargo, seats, and miles that cover multiple years. Others provide just a few tickets upon request, but it all makes an impact. In the 12 years since our first response, which was the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Airlink has responded to cyclones, hurricanes, wildfires, refugee crises, the COVID-19 pandemic, and other protracted emergencies in more than 60 countries. And we have saved our NGO partners over $23 million in transport and logistics costs. Last year, Airlink was able to launch its largest humanitarian response to date in Ukraine and neighboring countries. Airlink has direct— directly helped nearly 5.5 million people across 6 countries, working with more than 58 organizations and 13 airlines, and this work continues. Last month, within 48 hours after the tragic earthquakes in Syria and Türkiye, Airlink facilitated the deployment of a go team of 10 members focused on search and rescue, tasked with looking for survivors. The team conducted life scans on 20 collapsed buildings and rescued 4 survivors from the rubble. That's something. Since then, Airlink continues to send medical teams and responders that are supporting relief efforts. As the aviation sector works toward engineering a more environmentally friendly footprint for tomorrow, Airlink is a conduit for us to respond to the effects of climate change today. Consider making Airlink a part of your ESG strategy. I am so inspired by this sector's capacity to care for others and by what we achieve when we come together. I invite you to support Airlink so that together we can support communities in crisis. Thank you. Thank you.
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