Leipzig/Halle Airport, working with the Volga-Dnepr Group and the Akkon University of Human Sciences organised a specialist international conference focusing on humanitarian logistics.

About 60 representatives from research institutes, government and non-government organisations, logistics companies, airports as well as airlines attended the event held in Leipzig on the fringes of the OECD’s International Transport Forum on 21 May.

Workshops were organised at Leipzig/Halle Airport as part of the specialist conference and were designed to promote an active exchange of knowledge and experience.

The workshops dealt with topics such as requirements that global disaster operations place on all those involved in supply chain including aid organisations, logistics companies, airports and airlines.

Another major emphasis at one workshop was civil protection in Germany and how to effectively make use of aircraft, helicopters and drones if any national disasters occur.

During the remainder of the event, the participants had the opportunity to observe typical loading procedures of Volga-Dnepr’s Antonov AN-124 and IL76-TD-90VDs.

Götz Ahmelmann, CEO of Mitteldeutsche Flughafen and chairman of the board at Leipzig/Halle and Dresden airports says Leipzig/Halle offers excellent conditions for aid flights.

He says: “We’re happy to share our wealth of experience in handling cargo flights for disaster and aid missions so that we can continue to develop processes with all those involved in order to be able to act more quickly and efficiently in an emergency.”

Dr Timo Ulrichs, head of the international emergency and disaster aid B.A. and Global Health M.S.c. courses at Akkon University says that the Ebola epidemic in West Africa showed how important it is to enable active civil and military cooperation on missions.

He says: “Without the air bridge maintained by the German Armed Forces, it wouldn’t have been possible to guarantee continual supplies of consumables or the safety of the personnel if they caught Ebola.”