Air Partner Issues Critical Reminder with Recent Natural Disasters in Hawaii

Air Partner Emergency Planning Division - 31 Aug 2018

With Hawaii’s recent volcano eruption, flood warnings from remnants of Hurricane Lane and potential tropical storms, Air Partner puts special focus on disaster recovery and emergency planning. As a market leader in private aviation with experience handling complex missions globally, this serves as a critical reminder from its Emergency Planning Division on the importance of advance preparation. The company is speaking up, urging companies who may be at risk and considering an employee evacuation, to be cognizant of the following:

• An evacuation decision should be considered around 72 hours or more prior to the storm’s arrival.  There is a limited window of opportunity after this time frame.  Once winds reach more than 30 mph, evacuation may no longer be possible, due to aircraft landing limitations.  The wind, and the weather, will only get worse.  The sooner the decision is made to evacuate, the better.

• Availability of aircraft is limited during natural disasters, due to high demand, so Air Partner encourages groups to pre-plan and make critical decisions early. Charter pricing increases as availability becomes more limited, so as a storm gets closer, aircraft may no longer be available or able to operate to the evacuation airports.

•It is critical to ensure – before a storm approaches – that all employees have the necessary documentation to enter a foreign country. This includes passports and visas. Standard immigration rules apply even during a crisis, so companies should take proactive measures to ensure all documentation is in place as hurricane season heats up.

"Last year during Hurricane Irma, we successfully evacuated more than 200 people from the Caribbean, and with the increasing threat of these events in the U.S., our experienced Emergency Planning Division has ramped up, and is ready to help, manage and execute air support and evacuations,” said David McCown, president of Air Partner U.S. “Whether it’s hurricanes, typhoons, wildfires, earthquakes, or other natural disasters, Air Partner provides specific air evacuation planning for any type of industry or organization, offering a peace of mind in times of crisis.”

An integral part of Air Partner’s Emergency Planning Division, the company’s Evacuation Program offers pre-planning and rapid response evacuation services to companies, government organizations, families and individuals. The company offers contingency planning for air evacuations that can dovetail into existing plans, as well as individual plans that can be executed immediately by a 24/7 dedicated response team. Evacuations are carried out based on the pre-planning component, with preferred aircraft access and transfers to pre-selected destinations. The company’s planning division covers main airports, airport capabilities, en route complexities such as clearances, political areas, avoidance areas and terrain issues, destination airfields, onward dispersal and contingency planning.

Air Partner’s Emergency Planning Division provides 24/7 global air evacuation planning and implementation services for any situation a client deems an emergency. Recently, Air Partner was urgently called upon by Mr. John Roberts, a key JetCard client, to arrange the safe evacuation of his daughter and her boyfriend from Indonesia to Singapore in the aftermath of the Lombok earthquake. John’s daughter and boyfriend were visiting the island of Gili Trawangan, located off the northwest coast of Lombok, when the 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck on July 29 and was followed by 66 aftershocks. The hotel in which they were staying collapsed as a result, forcing the two travelers to jump to safety from the hotel balcony. The pair then had no choice but to camp on the beach until they were able to get back to Lombok. Air Partner worked around the clock to arrange immediate transport from Lombok to Singapore, which was no mean feat given the scarcity of available aircraft. However, using their experience and extensive network, the team was able to locate a suitable Lear Jet 60 for the journey, as well as secure the necessary private flight permits in just 24 hours, instead of the usual 2-3 days. 

With more than 55 years of experience, Air Partner has not only helped companies with pre-planning and evacuated thousands of people safely in times of crisis, but has also delivered wide-ranging support on the back-end of natural disasters. The company transported 40 tons of aid to Haitians impacted by Hurricane Matthew and helped evacuate over 70 employees of a private bank in Nassau, Bahamas to Atlanta. Air Partner also sent 600 tons of humanitarian aid to the Philippines when Typhoon Haiyan devastated the region, 300 tons to Nepal after the 2015 earthquake.