The new CEO at Airlink, Aviation Week's charity partner, chats with Karen Walker about her role and missions in crisis-hit Venezuela and West Africa.
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Karen Walker (00:10): Hello everyone and welcome to Window Seat, our Aviation Week Air Transport podcast. I'm ATW and Aviation Week air transport editor-in-chief Karen Walker. Welcome on board. Now, this week I'm delighted to be recording our podcast from the Washington DC headquarters office of an organization for which I have huge respect and that's nonprofit organization Airlink. Even better, our guest is Airlink president and CEO Paloma Adams-Allen. Paloma, welcome and thank you so much for joining us today. Airlink is a global humanitarian nonprofit that was created 16 years ago to deliver critical aid to communities in crisis by providing free or discounted airlift and logistical solutions to vetted nonprofit partners. Its network includes over 250 aid organizations and more than 50 commercial and charter airlines. Airlink has flown some 14,000 relief workers and transported some 18 million pounds of humanitarian cargo helping more than 63 million people impacted by disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and epidemics. (01:22): Paloma took the helm at Airlink in October last year. She previously served across multiple US administrations at the Agency for International Development in a number of roles, including chief operating officer and as its first deputy administrator for management and resources. So, let's get into the discussion. Paloma, with your career background, you bring a wealth of expertise to Airlink. So, could you start please by sharing a few thoughts on when you came to Airlink? What were your first impressions and thoughts and priorities?
Paloma Adams-Allen (01:58): Well, first of all, Karen, thank you for having me and thanks to your listeners and hello to everybody listening to the podcast. So, when I first came to Airlink, I would step back and say when I heard about Airlink and discovered Airlink in the process of interviewing for this job, I was thrilled and I was thrilled for a few reasons. One is that Airlink embodies what I believe is a really effective model of development and humanitarian assistance. And that is a model that has successfully brought together the private sector heavily in the form of aviation, but not exclusively, and the nonprofit and humanitarian sector to solve major issues in the ecosystem of humanitarian assistance. So that's the first thing, being an effective public-private, humanitarian organization. That's hard to do. A lot of organizations try to do it. The second thing is that Airlink is small, nimble, and incredibly efficient. (02:55): And what do I mean by that? Airlink's reason for being and the reason it was really created was to take advantage of underutilized capacity and airline assets and to put those to good use, to put those to humanitarian causes. That means that planes that we're taking on our vacations and taking to work and for all these other great reasons are also many times mobilizing critical humanitarian aid that's needed and first responders, emergency responders. So, in that way, those are planes that are going to fly anyway. Those are routes that were going to be taken that are now being used for humanitarian causes as well. If Airlink wasn't providing this resource through commercial airlines, the humanitarian sector would be figuring out alternate ways to get that aid there in a much more expensive and much less efficient way. I would say third, Airlink helps the humanitarian sector overcome a couple hurdles, cost. (03:53): The biggest expense in mobilizing humanitarian aid is the cost of transportation and just figuring out that supply chain by providing free of cost or very low-cost options for the humanitarian sector we remove or at least diminish that obstacle. The other is the logistical hurdles. We're looking at disasters right now, the earthquake in Venezuela, the Ebola response, this response in Sudan. Those are humanitarian crises, but they're also massive logistical dilemmas. And Airlink has figured out how to come up with creative, fast, effective, and cost-effective ways to help get the right aid to the right place at the right time. So, for me, Airlink answered a number of questions and needs that are in the humanitarian sector and I just thought I have to get on board with this organization.
Karen Walker (04:44): That's fantastic. I mean, obviously because I come from the airline side of this world, albeit as a journalist, but yes, it's fantastic to see how much enthusiasm airlines have had. They've got this capability and it's something that they like doing good things for people. And you touched on the point there about fast. With these sorts of crises, often the critical time is right at the beginning when people are in desperate need of the sorts of things that can be brought in through airlines. So, it's fantastic. You mentioned there Venezuela, that's of course one of the most recent of these crises, the earthquakes there. Can you talk a little bit about what Airlink has been doing in that?
Paloma Adams-Allen (05:30): Sure. So oddly, Airlink has never actually responded to an emergency in Venezuela per se, but we came out of and we were tested in the fires of or the rubble of the Haiti earthquake. And so, our very first major response that really made us into an organization and tested this idea of using underutilized capacity was the massive Haiti earthquake. And we have responded to earthquakes over the last 16 years. So, we understand very intimately what needs to happen in an earthquake response. So even though we'd never respond, we don't know the Venezuela context operationally, we know the Latin America context, and we know the geopolitical situation, and we know what's needed in an earthquake. So, what we did within 72 hours was get urban search and rescue teams on the ground. And just for your audience to understand how our model works, we have two main constituencies that we activate, three with donors, but two main constituencies that we activate in the event of a disaster. (06:30): So, say the Venezuela earthquake. As soon as we heard the earthquake happened, I remember I was at dinner, we were here with potential donors and we got the news flash and I immediately said, "I have to go." And we immediately, everybody, all of Airlink got on our Slack channel and said, "Okay, we got to move into action." What happens is we first activate our nonprofit community. Folks, earthquake has hit double earthquakes. This is a projected need. Who has operated in Venezuela or is operating and is prepared to mobilize urban search and rescue teams ASAP, emergency responders ASAP, and then the kinds of critical needs that have to get there within the first 72 or so hours. And we start doing that assessment, needs assessment and capacity assessment with our nonprofits. We also activate our airlines, many of whom are in-kind donors in terms of capacity, space, plane tickets, et cetera, to say, "We know you're tracking. (07:26): Please expect this is what we are going to need. Who is able to get into any of these airports?" So that's how the model works. So, our priority was get urban search and rescue in ASAP. Caracas airport was damaged. So, we had that dilemma. One, we did not have a lot of knowledge of the Venezuela context. Two, the airport itself was damaged. Our traditional partners, airline partners who we would put folks on planes immediately were still trying to assess when is anybody going to be able to get in? And I think we took about 24 hours and it became clear that Valencia Airport, two and a half hours away, was open, smaller, but it could take passengers. And so, we started getting, we contacted COPA Airlines, Avianca Airlines, those airlines that have smaller body planes and fly into Venezuela frequently, started getting our search and rescue teams in. (08:20): So that was the first 72 or so hours. And then it's been a steady stream. We've gotten over a hundred emergency workers, healthcare workers now, medical workers, water sanitation folks in. And I imagine that you saw that we launched an air bridge with Amazon and with the US government to make sure that we would have seven weeks straight of steady flights into Venezuela. And now we're able to get cargo into Caracas, not people, but cargo into Caracas to make sure that folks get the urgent food they need, the urgent medicines they need, the shelter that they need, the communications equipment that they need, et cetera. Our understanding is that there are about 50,000 people who have been displaced who are living in camps, et cetera. The number of people impacted is close to 200,000, and our expectation as you walk down the line and this continues, this response and recovery continues, is that there will be millions of people potentially impacted.
Karen Walker (09:22): Wow, that's an incredible, incredible response to put on. It has to be said, Venezuela, as we all know the political history there from the airline perspective, it's not been the easiest places for airlines to even get to at all. And then especially now that you've got this going on, but to pull that together is quite amazing.
Paloma Adams-Allen (09:43): Thank you. It's complex. And I will say part of the lesson that we've learned over 16 years is one, the importance of strong partnerships, long-term partnerships where we've tried a lot of different approaches and a lot of different responses across all types of disasters. The second is trust among partners. And so, in this case, because we trusted our nonprofit partners about their knowledge of the ground and their access and their ability to navigate, we were able to breathe and say, "Okay, we don't know this context that well. We will handle the first mile, and you all will handle the last mile." And again, our airline partners who are biggest partners don't necessarily fly into Venezuela or would not be able to, but our Latin American partners were able to do so. And so, because we've had years of trust and testing lots of approaches together, when we really needed it and everyone was looking for a way to help, we were able to tap into those trusted sources. (10:45): And then I would say, finally donors. The US government is a large donor for this. Amazon is a donor. They're providing a plane; they're providing funding and other support. And we have had numerous other donors who support us throughout the years, but when there are major types of events like this, they’ll step up and say, how can I help, or can I help a little bit more? And all of that is an investment over almost two decades in trusted relationships with our ecosystem of support.
Karen Walker (11:15): That doesn't come overnight, but when you've got a network built, it's invaluable and provides the sort of assistance that really nobody else can do on that scale and with that speed, as you say, and at that efficient cost as well, relatively speaking. Let's just quickly switch to another crisis that's a different type, but has also been in the news lately, the Ebola breakout in West Africa. Just talk a little as to Airlink's role in that.
Paloma Adams-Allen (11:42): Yeah, I mean similarly, I think I mentioned earlier, these are humanitarian crises, but they're also massive logistical dilemmas. So, we actually responded to Ebola in 2014. Again, so we've been tested and I think even following 2014, but the Ebola outbreak that we all remember was the major 2014 outbreak and Airlink responded at that time. So again, we were dealing with a disaster type that we know well, a health emergency that we know well. We understand how it functions, but the context is complicated because this is heavily in the DR Congo and the outbreak happened and is happening in a region that is also in conflict, so very difficult to access. There is a lack of trust in that region as well of the communities generally for nonprofits, partly because there was so much rollback in USAID and other funding. So, a lot of the local organizations that operated and were trusted didn't have funding to operate anymore. (12:46): So, not only were they not able to catch the outbreak as early as we typically would have, but the organizations that are coming in now did not necessarily have a long legacy in history in some of these regions. So, it's been complex. Again, our approach was to work with trusted partners, activate the network. The International Federation of the Red Cross has local workers and volunteers all across our country and in that region. And they were the first to say to us, even before it broke in the news, ‘it felt like something is percolating. People are getting sick. We need to get organized for this.’ And so, they have been our major partner. And what we started doing with them was with support from Qatar Airways heavily getting us into Entebbe and then on into Bunia. The first round was this type of health emergency because of the nature of Ebola and people are dying, burials and handling of bodies have to be done very carefully. (13:43): So, our first round was getting safe and dignified burial kits because people want to bury their loved ones, but touching your sick loved one will make you sick. And the caregivers are the ones who end up dying. So, we had to make sure that we provided them with the kinds of resources they need to handle that first wave. And then following behind were testing kits, et cetera. So, we've been doing this for over a month of aid cargo that we're getting in heavily. And we recently had a conversation with the supply chain lead for IFRC who we're working with on this who told us that because Airlink, I think we responded in about 72 hours as well. And I think we got the first set of kits in about 11 days. And he said the last time they did this, not with Airlink, it took about two weeks or more to get these kits in. (14:37): And this time when they did this with Airlink, they got them in so much faster and they were able to track people leaving the hospital, people able to walk out of health centers healthy because they had access to the resources that Airlink had helped the International Federation Red Cross.
Paloma Adams-Allen (14:54): Amazing. So, to your point on the importance of speed in these kinds of crises and then having the right kind of aid, what they needed were burial kits first. Secondly, they needed testing kits. Then they needed medicines.
Karen Walker (15:08): So takeaways for me from some of that is first of all, the experience that you're building up. I mean, sadly, tragically, these things seem to be happening more often around the world in all sorts of hard-to-get-to places, but you've got experience that clearly comes back really useful each time you're building that. And then I have to say the other thing is courage. I mean, this is still a courageous thing for everybody to do, to commit to. I mean to go into what you just said about the Ebola and the bodies; it takes a certain type of person to just say, "I'm still going to be involved in this."
Paloma Adams-Allen (15:46): It does. And for us, we're handling the logistics. So, we are not necessarily doing the interface with affected people or frustrated community members, but our partners are and people are afraid, they're in pain. And so, it's very difficult. And I agree with you on courage. I feel like we're being brave, but we are not having to be as brave as so many of our partners, and this is why we want to support them as much as possible.
Karen Walker (16:13): So you've mentioned your partners, your support and donors. Can I just bring up one that's again, very recent Airbus and of course again on the aviation side, we all know Airbus, which earlier this year pledged a four-year donation of 7.5 million euros, which is around $8.5 million. That's very exciting. And we all know that this industry, the airline industry, isn't exactly doing well financially at the moment. That's a big deal.
Paloma Adams-Allen (16:40): I mean, it's profound and I think it's helped our organization change and grow. We're growing now. We're hiring the capabilities that we need. We're able to professionalize our operations. We're able to grow our networks and to move from a small sort of startup or organization to a global aviation enabled humanitarian organization that can meet the moment. And this Airbus contribution helped position us to do so because the multi-year nature of that generosity means the multi-year nature and the unrestricted nature gives us the runway to plan, but also gives us the flexibility to use the resources on types of responses that need the most help, but also on investing in our operations and in strengthening our organization and empowering our teams. It's profound and I think it's helped us. It's going to help us level up to the next level that we need to get to. (17:37): You asked earlier what were my priorities for the organization? And my priority is precisely that. I really believe that the airlines’ moment is now, the need, just to give you a number in terms of the envelope of humanitarian need in the world, 300 million people projected to need critical urgent aid. That is a massive number. And in the face of declining public funding for aid, skepticism potentially about foreign aid, the aviation industry, but lots of other industries feeling stretched and maybe not able to give back. Airlink has an opportunity, having developed a model that I think allows the private sector, not just airlines and aviation, but the private sector in general, to give back with the assets that they have, whether it's their people's time, whether it's volunteerism, whether it's in-kind resources, whether it's business funding or foundation funding. Our model is so flexible that it allows the private sector to give back in a way that we need them to.
(18:36): And that's not easy for a lot of organizations. So, you have to accept what the private sector can offer. That's what I've found has been complicated in trying to build public-private partnerships for humanitarian assistance. They don't always speak to each other, and Airlink has figured out how to translate humanitarian need to the aviation sector and private sector in a way that they get the impact, business impact and social impact that they're looking for. And the humanitarian impact side gets really the resources that they need to be able to do their work, especially in a moment where they're looking at really declining budgets. So, my priority is that we are the organization that is scaled sufficiently to respond to the need that has a talent, the expertise, the technologies, and the network we need.
Karen Walker (19:28): And it speaks well for Airlink that a company like Airbus could say ‘this is a good place to put our money’.
Paloma Adams-Allen (19:34): Without question, this is a good investment. So, we are not only grateful to them; we see them as essential partners in our growth.
Karen Walker (19:43): Fantastic. Another thing that's, I know you've had such a busy schedule since arriving in October, I know, but you've released a study about the state of global humanitarian initiatives. And so, can you just highlight one or two key findings from that report?
Paloma Adams-Allen (20:02): Sure. So, the study is called From Ad Hoc to Essential: The Growing Role of the Private Sector and Humanitarian Assistance and the Humanitarian Supply Chain. And the key findings are what we've been experiencing. One is that there is actually immense generosity in the private sector. We know aviation most intimately, so we can use that. But immense generosity and desire to give back, the challenge that the study reveals is that even though there's generosity and desire to give back, and at the moment of a disaster, many companies will say, "I'll offer up something." Despite that, only 30% of the private sector folks we polled had standing strategic partnership agreements with the humanitarian sector organizations that they wanted to work with to make sure that this was a smooth arrangement. And so that's the key finding being not only do you have to invest in building the trust, you really have to have the infrastructure and the partnership infrastructure around those relationships. (21:08): And we know that intimately. The moment of a disaster is not the time to have your first conversation with United or with American or with Air France, et cetera. That's going nowhere. So those conversations should have happened five years ahead of time where you know each other well, where you can WhatsApp someone and say, "Something—a disaster's coming. We're going to need help. This is what we think we're going to need. Stay tuned." And they can say, "Trust you, got you." And ideally what we found was what the humanitarian sector needed, both sides actually needed, were the clear agreements that explained in the event of X, this is a kind of support we're going to provide. This is how we're going to provide it. This is who we're going to communicate with. That's where lives are lost when we are all sort of niffing-naffing, trying to figure out who we should talk to, how we're going to get things moving and who is going to contribute what. (22:02): So, pre-negotiating all of those arrangements, the study found as essential. The second great finding that the study illustrated was that the in-kind contributions are really, really valuable. Cash of course is king and preferred. That's flexible. But especially in our world of humanitarian logistics, the in-kind contributions are equally as valuable. And so, for companies who are contemplating how they want to give back, not to discount that because we don't have a foundation or we don't have a robust CSR program or we don't necessarily have a lot of funding, then we can't play a role. Assess the in-kind that you have. Your employees' time is incredibly valuable. Your employees’ skills are valuable. We have donors who are consultancies, so they're doing consulting projects for us pro bono. We have donors who are legal firms. So, assess your resources and those are valuable to organizations in the humanitarian sector. (23:07): So, cash is king, yes, but let's not discount the real value of in-kind. So, I would say those are two of the biggest findings, an area for growth in terms of structuring partnerships that are clear and that are long-term, and then really assessing all of your assets.
Karen Walker (23:23): And those things, that's what gives you certainty, reliability, and the ability to respond fast because you've already got the things in place. As you said, when something bad's happening, you can't be having that.
Paloma Adams-Allen (23:34): Yeah, that's not the moment.
Karen Walker (23:36): Can I ask you one last thing for our listeners here? Because I mean, it is an incredible story and people get moved when they hear these sorts of things. What would your message be? What can they do to support Airlink? What's the biggest thing they can do?
Paloma Adams-Allen (23:49): Biggest thing they can do? Well, listen, donate to us. We have a wonderful website. We post the minute we are monitoring.
Karen Walker (23:58): What's that website address?
Paloma Adams-Allen (23:59): It is airlinkflight.org.
Karen Walker (24:01): Airlinkflight.org. Got it?
Paloma Adams-Allen (24:03): Yes. Airlinkflight.org. Follow us there. You can also follow us on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on Threads. Those are our three big platforms. But if you're following us, you will see we give folks a heads-up when we're monitoring an emergency or a disaster than once we've kicked it off. So, donations, yes, please. Equally valuable. Help us tell our story. Share it with your networks, share it on these platforms. I would say third, our airline partners in particular often launch campaigns, Miles campaigns with us. So if you're following us again, you will see that we have an ongoing campaign right now with United. And you can also ask your employer if you hear about a disaster and you want to give back, ask your employer if they want to contribute, if you as employees can do some sort of matching campaign, reach out to us. We work with companies and organizations of all sizes, small businesses, medium-sized businesses, large corporations in the event of a disaster. (25:01): So those would be my big three. I wish we could accept volunteers. I would say the first couple of weeks of a disaster is not the moment to try to do kitting events, but when the news media has moved on, people still need help. And so, the months after the disaster, we often do events with employee groups who want to bag up supplies and send those to vulnerable people. And those are things we can do together as well.
Karen Walker (25:27): All sorts of ways to be involved with this very inspirational story. Paloma, thank you so much for your time. I know, like I say, you're very busy, so it's very gracious of you to give us time to tell this story. We'll be tracking you and keeping in touch, of course. And so, thank you again, and thank you also to our producers, Natalia Pelayo and Cory Hitt. And of course, thank you to our listeners. We enjoy having you on board also. Subscribe to Window Seat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen, so you don't miss a single episode. This is Karen Walker disembarking from Window Seat.
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