United Nations Humanitarian Air Service

The United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) managed by the World Food Programme (WFP), provides common air services, including light cargo transport for the wider humanitarian community to and from areas of crisis and intervention. In most countries requiring humanitarian assistance, surface travel is impeded by challenging security situations, long distances and poor road conditions. Furthermore, most of the destinations the humanitarian community needs to reach are not served by adequate commercial air operators. When no other means of reaching isolated communities are available, aid workers can rely on UNHAS to provide access.[1]

"UNHAS" redirects here. For the Indonesian University known as Unhas, see Hasanuddin University.
United Nations Humanitarian Air Service
A United Nations Humanitarian Air Service Boeing 737 operated by UTair

To fulfill its mission, UNHAS uses a fleet of more than 100 aircraft and helicopters chartered from commercial air operators that are compliant with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Standards and Recommended Practices (SARP) and the United Nations Aviation Standards for Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Air Transport Operations (UNAVSTADS).[2]

Chartered aircraft are fully dedicated to UNHAS operations. Therefore, contracted air carriers are assured of revenue in terms of guaranteed aircraft utilization for the duration of the contract. This, along with UNHAS' efficient management of schedules, ensures that partner air carriers avoid taking undue risks to achieve financial gains. For example, in the event of a flight cancellation due to poor weather conditions, the air carrier would not be financially penalized.

UNHAS operations

In 2020 UNHAS provided passenger and light cargo services through 22 WFP special operations in 24 countries:[3]

Fleet

To fulfil its mission, UNHAS uses a fleet of more than 100 aircraft, consisted of a mix of jet and turboprop aircraft as well as helicopters, including: Fixed-wing Aircraft:

Helicopters:

Performance

In 2020, UNHAS transported 248,026 aid workers, donors and journalists alongside 3,975 mt of humanitarian cargo and food to 400 destinations in 22 countries. Additionally, 1,343 evacuations were carried out during this year, including security relocations, medical evacuations and 32 COVID-19 medical evacuations.

Funding

WFP/UNHAS is funded by contributions from donors and money realized from a partial cost recovery scheme through which passengers pay ticket fees for the air service.

The UNHAS donors in 2020 were: Australia, Canada, Denmark, the European Union, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, the United Nations itself and the World Bank.

References
  1. "Chapter 6: Flying Humanitarians: The UN Humanitarian Air Service - UN Air Power: Wings for Peace". unairpower.net. Retrieved 2018-11-07.
  2. "WFP Aviation Annual Review 2017". WFP Aviation Annual Review. March 2018.
  3. UNHAS, WFP (25 June 2021). "United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) 2020 Overview". www.wfp.org. Retrieved 2021-12-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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