American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) and humanitarian relief organization Airlink have announced a new partnership to help first responders travel more quickly to disaster areas.
The new partnership will see Amex GMT deploy bespoke booking solutions and services for Airlink and its non-governmental (NGO) partners, aiming to ‘streamline and speed up the complex process of getting rapid-response emergency relief workers to where they need to be’.
Airlink, which was formed in 2009 by the International Society for Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) Foundation, has a network of more than 50 commercial and charter airlines and over 130 international NGOs. To date, the organization and its partners have transported more than 8.000 passengers and over 4.5 million pounds of cargo in support of a wide variety of humanitarian initiatives providing aid to more than 23 million people.
Airlink’s president and CEO Steve Smith noted that the arrangement is “a great example of how the skills, expertise, and resources of the private and humanitarian sectors can be harnessed to bring aid and hope to people impacted by natural and man-made disasters”.