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Air Charter Service announced that it has arranged its first charter flights to Poland with relief cargo on behalf of its clients in aid of refugees from the Ukraine crisis and said that it has at least six more flights planned for various organisations.
The first flight, a 737 freighter, landed in Rzeszów on March 1 from the United Kingdom. ACS said its cargo personnel will be shortly arriving in Poland, to coordinate future flights into Warsaw, Rzeszów and Chișinău on the ground and further flights are being planned into multiple countries bordering Ukraine.
During previous large scale humanitarian relief operations, a large amount of air cargo capacity has been provided by specialist operators of large freighters. However, ACS noted that the industry must now mobilise with a smaller pool of aircraft available than would normally be the case due to many of these specialist cargo airlines being either Russian, which will obviously not be used, or Ukrainian who in many cases have had their operations disrupted or aircraft destroyed.
Capacity is also further constrained by existing strains in the market amid persisting supply chain congestion, belly hold shortages due to still-existing Covid-19 restrictions as well as challenges in the shipping industry.
"The cargo so far has been medicines and tents being sent from airports in the UK, Switzerland and the Middle East. It is an evolving situation but there is the potential for a significant number more flights if the number of potential refugees being reported is accurate," said Ben Dinsdale, director for humanitarian services.
"The cargo industry is going to have to move into yet another gear to help deal with increased demand and the smaller pool of aircraft now available. In a market already struggling for available aircraft due to the well publicised supply chain issues gripping the world, we have mobilised our cargo team and emergency response procedures to ensure we can find solutions for all relief flights heading to the region," he added.
For his part, Group cargo director Dan Morgan-Evans noted how ACS will also be looking at options to help as a company and hopes "to have a plan in place this week."
"This is a heart-breaking situation. Having spoken to some of our colleagues who work for our Ukrainian airline partners, the stories are terrifying, and we plan to pull out all the stops to make sure we do our part in the operation and get as many humanitarian flights into surrounding countries where refugees have been arriving," Morgan-Evans said.
"The fact that a number of Ukrainian aircraft that would normally be used in such humanitarian operations have been destroyed during this invasion just compounds the challenge the industry now faces. I am confident however that, as an industry, we will all rise to this challenge as we have so many times before."
Significant need for charter service expected
ACS also noted that it expects the need for more charter services like this to Ukraine as the conflict further grows.
"We believe that there could be a significant airlift required as a result of the refugee crisis at a time where the number of available cargo aircraft is short due to the well-publicised supply chain disruption," ACS said.
