Qatar Airways’ Flights to Transport Humanitarian Aid Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
As one of the hardest hit sector by the coronavirus outbreak, the aviation industry has suffered huge losses in terms of revenues, employees and customer trust. To deal with the crisis, airlines across the world are making major changes in their overall functioning to make travelling safe and comfortable for all. While some have necessitated wearing masks on board, others are using UV light cleaning technology to ensure proper sanitation.
Even in such a challenging situation, Qatar Airways flights will be fulfilling the firms’ duty as a global corporate citizen. The airline has signed a formal partnership agreement with Airlink under which it will transport 200 tonnes of humanitarian aid in the next two years.
The free of cost service by Qatar Airways flights will help the non-profit partners of Airlink. It will also help other communities globally that have been impacted by disasters and humanitarian crisis.
As part of their first mission under the agreement, Airlink, its non-profit partner AFYA Foundation and Qatar Airways recently transported more than 64,000lbs of soap to Botswana. Speaking about this initiative, the President and Chief Executive of Airlink — Steven J Smith said, “We are delighted to announce this new partnership between Airlink and Qatar Airways. The 200 tons of freight space is a generous donation that will help fragile communities now, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and in future disasters.”
Expressing delight on the partnership, Chief Officer of cargo at Qatar Airways — Guillaume Halleux said, “As the largest airfreight carrier in the world, we are proud to do our part as a global corporate citizen to support the important and essential work of nonprofit organizations like Airlink.”
Currently, Airlink is supporting more than 130 aid organisations by working with several airlines. Recently, it celebrated its 10th year of operation by transporting 6.5m pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) to communities in need.
Airlink has worked with Qatar Airways flights earlier as well. In April 2019, Qatar Airways joined hands with Airlink’s partner non-profits MedShare and Save the Children to help communities in Mozambique and neighbouring countries to recover from the devastating impact of Cyclone Idai.
In May 2020, Qatar Airways announced plans to give complimentary roundtrip airline tickets to 100,000 healthcare staff workers. With decisions like these, the airline is gaining popularity among people merely by helping humanity in a crisis situation.
