UK-based Air Charter Service teamed up with Etihad Crystal Cargo to move badly needed relief supplies to areas of Pakistan devastated by the recent earthquake. Where an estimated 40,000 are dead and as many as four million people homeless.
   Air Charter Service which specializes in urgent, outsize and humanitarian flights said that it drew on past experience of such operations and had the rescue teams and all of their equipment in Islamabad within 30 hours of receiving the urgent call.
   Working around the clock, the Etihad A310-300 transported three UK rescue teams, their sniffer dogs and 7 tons of hi-tech searching equipment from East Midlands Airport (EMA) to Islamabad (ISB).
   Air Charter Service said its numerous aid flights to Islamabad and Peshawar have included a B747 packed with tents and blankets from East Midlands, IL-76’s carrying food and medical supplies from Brussels and Vatry, and several other IL-76 relief flights from the Middle East.
   People wishing to help the relief effort are urged to make a donation to the International Red Cross @ www.redcross.org.

Gulf Air Cargo Flies Free

  Gulf Air Cargo said that it is offering wide-spread free transport for any relief cargo sent from any of its points in its network to all the affected parts in Pakistan, namely Peshawar, Lahore, Islamabad, and Karachi.
  According to Gulf Air vice-president business units Ali Murtada,
  "We are offering this service to all embassies, non-governmental organizations and socio-religious associations, who would like to contribute essential commodities to the affected region in Pakistan.
  "We are flying it to critical parts of Pakistan where it is needed the most."

Compassion At SkyCargo

Ram Menen Emirates' Senior Vice President Cargo has been up late working some emergency flights to Pakistan.
  Ram understands what it means to be a good neighbor.
  He also knows operations from the early days when he worked inside the cargo sheds near the runway even before most of the world had ever heard of Emirates Airline.
  But right now in the midst of one of the biggest run-ups at what is now the fifteenth largest air cargo program in the world, the Emirates SkyCargo executive in Dubai, has been working late, pulling out all the stops, as Emirates tries to lift the situation in Pakistan.
  “We have sent hundreds of tons of relief supplies to Islamabad in the past week,” he said.
  “Our people are liaising with international and local authorities as well as governments and relief agencies to co-ordinate the logistics of sending aid.”
  On Monday evening (October 17) Emirates dispatched three of its freighters, fully loaded, to aid relief efforts.
  One freighter had to be abruptly rerouted from regular commercial services to carry 14 urgently needed vehicles - three Nissan Patrols, one Nissan Xtrail and 10 Nissan Double Cab Pick-ups - on behalf of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies located at the Jebel Ali Free Zone.
  Phil Jones, Head of Base at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said:
  "We are grateful to Emirates SkyCargo for diverting their freighter from scheduled services and for responding swiftly and in a thoroughly professional manner."
  Maybe somewhere in the back of his mind Ram Menen remembers that once upon a time Emirates, the airline, consisted only of a couple of aircraft that were leased in from Pakistan International Airways.
  But as more and more relief supplies—tents, blankets, food and medicines—were carried by two additional Emirates SkyCargo freighters to Islamabad following the vehicles, it was also apparent that the spirit of helping others in need was catching on.
  “We just have to do all we can to help these people right now, ”Ram said gently as he moved off to answer a telephone ringing in the outer office.
  Donations to Pakistan earthquake: relief@www.redcross.org.

Lending A Hand

  Meantime just to point out that it is not always pursuit of more that drives Dnata, the airport operator has waived all Acceptance and Documentation charges for shippers of relief goods while adding staff to handle expanded relief efforts for earthquake victims in Pakistan.
  At FLC alone, Dnata Cargo has handled more than 30 fully laden freighters moving more than 543 tons of relief goods to Islamabad.
  In fact most all the operators based at the FLC had at least one flight carrying humanitarian aid, using AN-12, IL76, and IL18 aircraft to uplift tents, clothes, blankets, food, medicines and mineral water to the affected areas.
  Jean Pierre De Pauw, Senior Vice President Dnata Cargo, told FT:

  "On one particularly challenging day we handled humanitarian cargo from 20 seven-ton trucks and five 40-feet trailers which arrived simultaneously with relief supplies from various aid agencies.
  Many of the Dnata Cargo team put in extra hours and effort to handle the extra load and ensure that all the cargo was processed efficiently so that it got to its destination without delay.
  Warehousing space constraints were also solved with creativity, by deploying additional forklifts and tractors to unload the cargo from trucks arriving at the docks, and directly loading them onto pallets which were then promptly towed to the ramp area."
  Dnata Cargo staff also made personal contributions to relief efforts by collecting and dispatched 25 packages of tents, clothes and medicines.
  Six staff members from Dnata Cargo also volunteered to join the Airport Emergency Team at Islamabad to assist with the deployment of relief efforts on the ground.