Our Founding
In late 2009, Airlink was formed by the ISTAT Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the International Society for Transport Aircraft Trading, which supports individuals and institutions that promote the advancement of commercial aviation and humanitarianism.
Members of the ISTAT Foundation and greater aviation industry realized commercial airlines had excess capacity, and empty passenger seats on existing routes that could be donated to humanitarian organizations responding to crises. Airlink’s solution looked to harness the power of the aviation sector to meet growing needs.
Robert “Bob” Brown spearheaded the initiative to “match” humanitarian requests to airline capabilities, and thus, Airlink was born.
A New Approach to Disaster Response
Today, it continues to be guided and supported by aviation and logistics sector leaders. Bob served as Airlink’s first Chairman and remains a powerful advocate for Airlink and its unique role.
Airlink launched its first response in 2010 when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Airlink joined forces with global organizations and commercial and private aviation to coordinate the movement of more than 2,000 doctors and nurses and more than 40 shipments of aid, totaling 500,000+ pounds.
Since then, Airlink has reached over 100 countries with 50 airline and transportation partners, and supported 250 humanitarian organizations responding to nearly 300 disasters, saving them $56 million. Together, we’ve helped over 80 million people.
Read next:
Meet the team with decades of experience coordinating the chaos of rapid disaster response.
Learn more about our emergency and humanitarian responses from over 15 years.
See Airlink in action and follow along through each step of a disaster response.
Now boarding
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