Plane Conversations

Clint White, in a comment on last Thursday’s post about the crisis in Haiti and business aviation’s opportunity to help, said the following:

“As the world rallies to help the devastated 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 aviation 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 Aviation world to shine.

Those that accuse business and general aviation 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 aviation’s role can now go beyond what most people consider our “core” users. The use of our industry in contributing to 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!”

USA Today and other mainstream media need to pay attention to this situation and think about the misinformation they propagate about the perceived lack of value of small airports and business aviation!

As our company’s flight operations group has started working with various relief efforts to try and get people into to Haiti we have witnessed a logistics bottleneck in  getting supplies and people into the country. Since the earthquake hit, many flights with relief supplies have been turned back because the airport has only one runway, the ramp is full of aircraft and supplies, the airport cannot take any more aircraft, and air traffic control is overwhelmed with the flow of aircraft.

Haiti, as a country of nine million people, has only one airport capable of handling large aircraft and maybe one more that can handle regional airline aircraft and business jets. The main airport at Port Au Prince is a single runway airport with a decent size parking area for aircraft but in no way capable of handling the airlift requirements in the present situation.

Compare Haiti to Tennessee where I live ,which is geographically larger, but a population of 2/3 of Haiti. Our state is blessed with one of the best airport systems in the country and has 76 public airports with six of those having commercial airline service. Almost every community in the state is 30 minutes or less from a public airport.  The airport I work at is a retired air force base and now a vibrant center of business development. We are capable of handling the largest passenger and cargo aircraft in existence.

What would it be worth to the world and the suffering people of Haiti to have an airport like Smyrna Airport (KMQY) sitting somewhere in the country of Haiti. What is the value of having the ability to move thousands of people and tons of relief supplies in the first 72 hours of a disaster? What if Haiti had just three or four airports capable of handling business jet size aircraft and a few two lane roads to connect those airports to the main population centers? What if every flight that has tried to get into Haiti in the past five days could have easily landed and offloaded critical supplies and volunteer medical personnel? What value do we place on human life?

For all the finger pointing about the ineptness of the governments response to Katrina in 2005, at least Louisiana and Mississippi had roads and airports (eight within 50 miles of New Orleans, six within 50 miles of Gulfport) to get the critically needed help into the disaster areas quickly. And compared to this crisis, help arrived en mass and quickly minimizing the further loss of lives.

Haiti needs help quickly and in a massive way. Lives are lost every day as people suffering need help. When all that can be done for the immediate needs of the suffering is under control (if that is possible) maybe our country should think about using some of the aid money to help this country build an infrastructure of tranportation  for the future.

Billions of dollars will flow from around the world to help Haiti. What does it cost to build a one mile strip of concrete with a few acres of parking space for aircraft?  Not only does it solve a future logistics problem but it also puts people to work.

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