How Aid Travels: Navigating the World’s Humanitarian Air Service

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Last month, news broke that Haiti's only international airport was closing operations after gang violence grounded all flights. This devastating interruption came at a time when humanitarian workers are frantically trying to shore up much-needed assistance to a population reeling from months of increasing internal conflict that's taken the lives of 5,000 Haitians - 150 of whom died at the hands of gangs in the last week of November alone.

With airstrips blocked and skies too dangerous to traverse, how do aid workers and aid supplies reach those in need?

Meet the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service: the "Humanitarian Airline."

From Port-au-Prince to Papua New Guinea, there's hardly a point on the planet not connected by UNHAS. The story of UNHAS begins in the 1980s, when the World Food Programme (WFP) created the service to help deliver food and people to some of the most inaccessible destinations worldwide. Over the decades, the service evolved to meet the growing needs of the humanitarian community, who were struggling with similar challenges reaching populations in need when critical infrastructure like roads and airports were cut off.

Their remit is vast. Last year, UNHAS operated 140 planes, helicopters and amphibious vehicles, transporting more than 385,000 aid workers from 600 organizations to deliver 4,500 tons of supplies to 389 destinations affected by conflict, natural disasters or other crises. The overwhelming majority of those locations are considered no-fly zones by commercial airlines. And every day, 60 UNHAS planes and helicopters take to the skies to serve the world's neediest.

As noted by the agency's chief, Franklyn Frimpong, "UNHAS exists to bridge the gap between despair and hope."

"UNHAS exists to bridge the gap between despair and hope."

Franklyn Frimpong

Like so much of the work of the UN, the accomplishments of UNHAS are similarly invisible. That's because invisibility has been an operational requirement; the service must often - literally - fly under the radar to ensure the safety of its missions.

Yet this small and mighty agency serves as a model of effective international cooperation - representing the best of the UN system as it pragmatically, flexibly navigates complexity to coordinate through crisis.

Read more about UNHAS as it rings in its twentieth year of operations.

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