Can Business Aviation Offer Help to our Neighbors in Haiti
Business Aviation Can Meet a Need and Make a Difference:
In Monday’s post titled “Can Social Capitalism Help Private Aviation,” Dan Robles proposed that Business Aviation can go a long way in repairing its image as the symbol of modern American excess by meeting social priorities rather than Wall Street priorities. He goes on to say: “Countless social service organizations are trying to send volunteers around the world to help displaced populations, provide medical care, and to fight social injustice. It’s not about giving money, it’s about giving access. The industry should simply publish aggregate routes structures, coordinate prices, and generally bring the industry into the light of day. Give regular people access to the benefits enjoyed by corporate executives and the industry will be rewarded magnificently.”
Tuesday at 5 pm, our neighbors to the south in Haiti experienced an earthquake of devastating proportions. Our company has friends and business relationships with aviators in Haiti. We provide maintenance support for one of the airlines based in Port Au Prince that provides the country with badly needed air service to the cities in Haiti that are hard to reach by road. This hits closer to home when you have good friends that are in the middle of a crisis.
I have made several trips to Haiti in the past few years. It is a beautiful country with great people who continue to suffer through natural disasters and political strife. The last thing these people needed was a disaster of this magnitude on top of what they deal with on a day to day basis.
Little did I know that two days after a post on our blog site about social capitalism I would be challenged to decide what our part in helping the helpless would be. The need for moving people and critical medical supplies is great and will continue for some time to come. We are already presented with opportunities to provide transportation for this crisis.
The United States sits on the best and most underutilized fleet of private aircraft of any country in the world. This is an opportunity for our industry to show that it is about more than flying the rock stars and wealthy around. If mobilized we could provide the greatest airlift in support of a humanitarian crisis the world has ever seen! Or we can sit back and watch it on the News!
I don’t know how many people in our industry will read this, but I would ask that you who do read this to consider what you can do with the assets at your disposal to help neighbors in a time of crisis.
You can now go to this address put up by the NBAA for further information on how business aviation can help:
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Simply stunning how timely the Social Captialism post was….
As the world rallies to help the devestated people of Haiti we have begun to see corporate aviation really shine. With the Port Au Prince port destroyed and many roads badly damaged, the ONLY way to get badly needed supplies in the country is from the air.
No one is going to complain about the role of corporate and business aviaton as they bring in badly needed supplies and people from the United States and around the world. Out of this epic tragedy is a REAL opportunity for all of us in the Business Aviaton world to shine.
Those that accuse business and general aviaton of using up resources and “underutilized airports” now see the kind of role we can truly play. From air ambulance, to cargo, to humanitarian aid, those small airports are now thousands of points of departure for help from all over the country. Imagine if we could only send supplies from our own overcrowded “hub” airports. This would greatly restrict the flow of goods. Even in Haiti the airport is nearly ground and air stopped from all the airplanes. Imagine if they had a vibrant general aviation community there. We could use many of the smaller airports for supply to those harder hit areas beyond the major city. The same could certainly be applied in this country if such a disaster was to hit. General aviation is doing more than just providing a service it is quite simply SAVING LIVES.
General and business aviaton role can now go beyond what most people consider our “core” users. The use of our industry in contributing the greater good can only quiet the critics and truly make the general public understand that our industry is not a luxury but a NECESSITY!