A second Air Serv aircraft, a Cessna Grand Caravan, has landed in Juba, South Sudan, where it will be used to serve the humanitarian community in the region as the refugee crisis evolves.

In 2021, Air Serv launched an independent humanitarian Air Service programme in response to the limited options available to agencies conducting humanitarian operations in the area. With South Sudan’s extreme rainy seasons and deficient ground infrastructure, the ability to safely and efficiently move cargo and personnel by road was already minimal and has been further diminished by civil unrest. Despite this fact, humanitarian response field teams rarely have sufficient transportation budgets to enable them to deliver the goods and services needed. Through a combination of grants, donor funding and local partnerships, Air Serv has successfully implemented flight services that are currently used by approximately 50 local and international non-governmental organisations.

Since operations commenced, demand for service has steadily increased. In spring of this year, Air Serv deployed additional crew to Juba in order to support daily flights transporting aid workers and moving humanitarian cargo. Flight frequency requests increased exponentially following the violent events and civil war that broke out in the capital city of Khartoum in April. The conflict, which quickly spread to the Darfur region, has resulted in millions of internally displaced people and refugees who have escaped to neighbouring countries. Thousands of those who fled to South Sudan are now stranded at border camps with little to no resources. Air Serv has been conducting relief flights to and from transit centres in Renk, Malakal and Paloich, transporting cargo and passengers.

“There was no question about the need for additional support in South Sudan,” says Henk Boneschans, Air Serv’s managing director in Africa. “There is a significant humanitarian crisis there, and while South Sudan presents a challenging operating environment, our dedicated crew and support staff are highly experienced and adept at working under such demanding conditions.”

The Juba programme is the organisation’s first independently-funded operation in nearly 15 years and offers a combination of scheduled services and ad hoc charters to best serve humanitarian partners. In addition to this programme, Air Serv is an implementing partner for the United Nations Humanitarian Air Service in eastern Africa. The organisation has also established a formal on-the-job training programme for aviation professionals at its facilities in Entebbe, Uganda, an endeavour supported by the acquisition of a Redbird Cessna Caravan G1000 flight simulator in 2022.

Founded in 1984 as a US-based non-profit, Air Serv was developed for the purpose of providing air transportation to humanitarian agencies operating in hard to reach areas. In 1997, a permanent operations base was established at Entebbe airport.