Volga-Dnepr Airlines’ 27 years of expertise in supporting international humanitarian aid projects has been called into action to help victims of Hurricane Irma in the Caribbean and Florida. Hurricane Irma is the second most powerful Atlantic storm ever recorded and caused devastation across parts of the Caribbean and the U.S. State of Florida.The airline has so far operated three flights carrying nearly 175 tonnes of relief goods and equipment.

 

The flight on September 18th was chartered by DSV Air and Sea for the Danish Red Cross and operated from Billund to Miami International Airport. The 25 tonnes of cargo on-board the IL-76TD-90VD freighter included medicines and medical equipment as well as tents and other equipment to set up a large base camp, such as bedding, a mobile kitchen, office equipment and supplies, an electricity generator, maintenance tools, mobile showers and toilets.

 

Volga-Dnepr’s first An-124-100 flights to the region on September 11th carried 87 tonnes of food service equipment, generators, motor pumps and spare parts to Pointe-à-Pitre on the island of Guadeloupe in the southern Caribbean Sea. This coincided with a second An-124-100 flight to Bridgetown, Barbados, with a further 60 tonnes of humanitarian cargo. On-board was a wide range of relief goods including sanitation and cleaning equipment and products to help those worst affected by the devastating hurricane that swept through the Caribbean earlier this month.

 

Alexander Kraynov, Group Commercial director at Volga-Dnepr Airlines, said: “We have many years of experience of responding to requests for flights following natural disasters and were able to ensure the fast delivery of urgently-needed relief supplies despite the challenging weather conditions in the region thanks to the efforts of our operations personnel. For one of the flights we were also able to identify a shorter route via the Azores Islands which helped to reduce the cost of the operation. Given our expertise in humanitarian flights and our specialist services for transporting outsize and heavyweight cargoes, we expect to be supporting the relief and rebuilding programmes in the region for some time to come.”