Although the Ebola crisis in West Africa has subsided as a top story, there is still no cure and the fight goes on. Liège Airport in Belgium has played a significant role in providing humanitarian aid to affected countries.
Since October of last year, 111 widebody aircraft carrying an average of 90 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals per flight have departed from Liège’s cargo hub bound for Conakry, Guinea; Freetown, Sierra Leone; and Monrovia, Liberia, or transited through airports in Abuja, Nigeria; Bamako, Mali; and Lagos, Nigeria.
Carriers that participated include Ethiopian Airlines, ANA Aviation, Global Africa Cargo, Air Cargo Global, Western Global Airlines and more. Humanitarian organizations and NGOs, including Doctor’s Without Borders, UNICEF, the Red Cross, World Health Organization, the World Population Foundations and the United Nations, are all still working in Africa and utilizing the flights.
Liège operates 24/7, has specialized handlers, customs personnel, forwarders and shippers, and has facilities that can handle pharmaceuticals and oversize cargo, such as pickup trucks and helicopters. Liege is capable of playing a key role in responding to humanitarian or meteorological disasters.
“It’s not new for Liège Airport to play its own part in providing that air bridge,” said Liège Airport spokesman, Christian Delcourt. He cited other operations, for example, when “hundreds of tents had to be flown urgently to Turkey following a severe earthquake, and the numerous flights after the tsunami in Thailand, and after the Haiyan typhoon devastated the Philippines, and too many others, unfortunately.”