1. Introduction

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        Many scholars have pointed out the pivotal role of aerial aid in contemporary conflicts. Earlier this year, the Israeli authority imposed numerous restrictions on aid delivery to Gaza through the mainland arteries of Kerem Shalom, Erez, and Rafah, near the border with Egypt. It refused permission for UNRWA food convoys to transport humanitarian aid to northern Gaza, where famine is dreadful (UNRWA, 2024). Food trucks are rooted on the Egypt side of the border while Palestinians are trapped in severe starvation in Rafah. Another delivery alternative is sea routes, which yet pale in comparison due to prolonged shipping duration and Gaza’s lack of functioning ports (Mpoke Bigg, 2024). In such an incident, assistance from the sky is of paramount importance.

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        2. Definitions 

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       Humanitarian aid, assistance, or disaster relief provides immediate support, including food, shelter, protection, sanitation, education, medical relief, child care, financing, etc., to alleviate suffering during disastrous situations. Such support is essential in periods characterized by conflicts, natural disasters, or human-made crises. Moreover, the help from the sky could also be in establishing humanitarian no-fly zones, rescuing missions and relocating evacuees. 

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        The term “aerial aid” may refer to the use of aircraft and other aviation resources to support humanitarian efforts, including but not limited to commercial airplanes, airships, jets, drones, helicopters, and guided balloons. As globalization and international cooperation develop, countries are further improving their disaster management capabilities, which is the ability to introduce effective policy and conduct sustainable missions to reduce the impact of disasters, including disaster warning, detection, preparedness, prevention, and magnitude reduction. 

Across the world, there exists multiple international, local, non-governmental, or even private organizations that provide such assistance, in specific times, among which the United Nations (UN) and its specialized bodies play the most prominent role. These include the UN Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS), the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and many more.  

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        3. Characteristics

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       Aerial delivery is the most effective alternative means of providing support to hard-to-reach areas: Most humanitarian support, either stored in cargos, containers, or divided into multiple packages, is usually delivered by ground vehicles, as they are economically viable and convenient to mobilize. However, in many cases, approaching geographically disadvantaged areas can reduce the quality and efficiency of humanitarian missions, especially when medical and civil defense supplies are vulnerable to being damaged. As early as 2017, aside from the use of airplanes and helicopters, drones have had a greater role in delivering materials in Malawi. They ensure connectivity of the supply chain while reducing the time and cost needed to operate. Planes and helicopters offer more reliable coordination and management of crises, mainly in identifying the impacted scene, and analyzing the overall scale and severity of crises compared to traditional approaches. Given the environmental conditions of some states, airplanes can drop huge volumes of cargo without needing large groups of people to operate, making operations less cumbersome, and safer from the risk of being attacked or ambushed. With more advanced technologies being integrated (e.g automated thermal sensors and far-reaching night vision), planes and drones are further reducing unwanted faults during search & rescue missions while improving their intelligence-gathering capabilities and cross-communication. 

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        Aerial delivery of humanitarian aid can be supported by establishing no-fly zones. A no-fly zone (NFZ), or sometimes known as an air exclusion zone, is a physical space above a certain area, mostly a country, that is established to restrict most aviation activities. In the current context, a no-fly zone can only be set up with a mandate from the United Nations Security Council. Normally, such zones are imposed to protect civilian lives and facilitate humanitarian responses, yet such establishment of an area is considered a coercive and collective military operation, conducted with the help of ground forces and air patrol. The earliest example of such an event can be traced back to the early 1990s when the Coalition Forces (mainly composed of the U.S, France, and the U.K.) forcefully banned Iraqi aircraft from entering certain areas to protect the Kurdish minorities and to prevent Iraq from developing weapons of mass destruction. However, these two NFZs in Iraq weren't legally authorized. Most of the time, when states impose an NFZ, they will also be responsible for drafting mechanisms for upholding humanitarian exceptions, administering air routes, and listing flights that are allowed to enter the no fly zone, whose purposes are to provide aid, conduct search, evacuation, and rescue missions. 

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         4. Difficulties 

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         Many international relations scholars have pointed out new shifts in the characteristics of warfare in the 21st century when the number of interstate wars declined and no direct military confrontation between superpowers was recorded since 1946. These have been heavily substituted by “internationalized” civil wars occurring in the Southern Hemisphere (Kegley & Raymond, 2014), with noteworthy examples in Sudan, and Ethiopia. Operating robust aviation missions in this new conflict pattern remains an uneasy task. 

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        4.1. Airdrops could be “deadly”

       

        Airdrop aid encompasses packages of food, medicines, and other essentials attached to steerable parachutes and dropped by aircraft to conflict-ridden zones or geographically remote destinations. Although parachute deployment failure is rare, it occurred in Gaza in March 2024, making heavy crafts fall with accelerated speed and causing at least five Palestinian deaths and ten injuries (Burke, 2024). The airdrop failed to relieve the difficulties of Palestinians and compounded the catastrophic situation. 

Moreover, the delivery of airdrop is effort-consuming and risky, involving the application of satellite images, drone feeds, and synthetic aperture radar, among other complex technologies to assist the calculus process; yet, there remains a possibility that drops end up in enemies’ territory, underwater, or hitting infrastructure (Kalin, 2024).

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        4.2. Insecurity for aid workers

 

        History has illustrated numerous crash cases wherein UN-leased L-100, C-130, and national resupply aircraft were crashed by missiles while on missions (Dorn, 2015). Similar cases might rise in frequency and damage due to the march of military advancements and mobilization.  

 

        Besides  the fierce nature of conflicts, aid crews also face intensified non-traditional security threats, including terrorism, climate-related hazards, infectious disease outbreaks, and human trafficking. In 2010, a Latvian pilot, co-pilot, and mechanic were kidnapped and kept under detention by gunmen in Nyala when conducting humanitarian missions in Darfur, Sudan. These were just one among a continuous string of abductions of aid crews in Sudan’s volatile region (BBC, 2010). Unfortunately, the foregoing life-threatening factors are prevalent in nations including Congo, Ethiopia, and Yemen where aids are most needed.  

 

        4.3. Cost-inefficiency and economic constraints 

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        Although some humanitarian operators, including the UNHAS, usually conduct flights based on the cost-recovery scheme (operating cost-subsidized, rather than free-of-charge services for users) that enables reduced expenses, chartering aircraft, operating in harsh weather and ensuring planes qualities comply with the international operational requirements are expensive endeavors. Moreover, retaining uninterrupted and high-tempo missions even in just a few days demands a considerable logistics footprint to assist the specialized crews (Weit et al., 2018). One instance is a humanitarian flight on a C-130 from Jordan to the Gaza Strip in March 2024, demanding approximately $30,000 and ten specialized staff to successfully deliver payload enough for less than 0.5% of the civilians (Kalin, 2024).

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        The internal bureaucracy and the shortage of consistent financial provisions also represents challenges. Even though the UNHAS is a humanitarian-reserved agency separated from other peacekeeping and military operations for political self-reliance (A. Walter Dorn, 2016), this results in responsibility overlaps and administrative redundancy, further adding to the operative expenditure. Furthermore, UNHAS and NGO operations needed help finding sustainable and consistent funding resources, with the former primarily relying on voluntary donations from states and the UN budget (UNJIU, 2008). Yet, the fundraising capacity has proven weak, and the global economy has again been anticipated to be tumultuous and gloomy in 2024. 

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        5. What to prepare

 

        5.1. Type of aircraft operated

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       The humanitarian air service sector must leverage the full spectrum of aircraft to meet the various critical needs of a humanitarian crisis and best adapt to the particular conditions of conflict sites. For example, during the first hours of a crisis, helicopters are critical in making a clear difference and enabling a swift response. Their flexibility and ability to quickly mobilise allow for passengers’ safe movement in demanding environments and support ground rescuers in assessing emergencies, which in turn makes them the perfect candidate for first responders. 

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        To aid and sustain larger populations over extensive distances, however, carriers would have to utilize the greater capacity and range offered by larger fixed-wing aircraft, unlike the type most commonly seen at civilian airports. In addition to manned aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones could also be used to provide easy access to hard-to-reach confined locations or spaces that are sometimes impossible with traditional aviation resources. Another perk is that operating UAVs’ logistical footprint & tail is much smaller than sustaining manned rotor-wing and fixed-wing aircraft in the field. (Ryan, 2021). Drones could also be used to provide real-time aerial assessments, such as in the 2018 flood in Kerala, India, where drones were deployed to map affected areas, identify stranded individuals, and assess damage, significantly enhancing the efficiency of rescue operations. (Murugan, 2024)

 

        5.2 Implementation and monitoring

 

         While airborne humanitarian support has been traditionally carried out by governments e.g. airlifts to rescue and resettle refugees in war zones, this onerous duty has been put more recently in the hands of multinational institutions, including some UN agencies and NGOs in a bid to share resources and increase global coverage. Although the reason for this is due to the limitations of civil and military government assets accessible for humanitarian aid, these organisations in the past decade have been shifting to using privately owned assets, especially for aviation, to conduct complex air missions in harsh environments while at the same time maintaining stringent civilian airworthiness requirements.

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       In crisis response, proactive training and preparedness are two fundamentals that all volunteers must remember by heart. The ICAO, in collaboration with organizations like the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the World Health Organization (WHO), conducts regular training programs and simulation exercises, which are designed to prepare aviation professionals for the complexities of disaster response, from handling hazardous materials to managing large-scale evacuations. For example, the "Humanitarian Aviation Operations" course offered by IATA provides comprehensive training on the logistical and regulatory aspects of deploying humanitarian aid via air transport.

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         Experts have also been highlighting the need to address the bottlenecks or inefficiencies at airports during humanitarian relief operations. For instance, in many disaster scenarios, air traffic control systems may be degraded, thereby limiting the ability to receive the necessary humanitarian relief items and teams (SPCP Office, 2021). An airport operator may also have to accommodate aircraft types that do not normally operate at the airport, and it may also have to handle mixed traffic (commercial, military and humanitarian), which poses questions of how to allocate scarce physical and human resources, as well as essential services, such as ground handling, refueling, and aircraft maintenance, if there is even an available airport in the first place, for many crisis sites are located in otherwise inaccessible locations which only allow small aircraft and drones to operate.

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         6. Conclusion

       

      It is perhaps undeniable that aerial assistance has played, and will be playing a crucial role in providing essential aid to remote and conflict-ridden areas, rescuing civilians and establishing no-fly zones in the foreseeable future. Alas, it comes with its very own set of challenges: from ensuring safe delivery to navigating legal and financial complexities, there are significant obstacles to overcome.

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       Nevertheless, the unmatched speed and flexibility of air transportation make it an invaluable asset. By meticulously planning missions, utilizing a variety of aircraft types (including drones) and promoting cooperation among governments, NGOs, and international bodies, the humanitarian sector can maximize the effectiveness of aerial support. This will result in quicker and more efficient responses, ultimately saving numerous lives amidst turbulent times.

 

Author: 

1. Le Thien Nhi, International Politics and Diplomatic Studies intake 50, DAV.

2. Nguyen Thanh Luan, International Politics and Diplomatic Studies intake 50, DAV.

3. Le Nguyen Quoc Anh, International Economics (Advanced Program) intake 62, FTU.

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References

1. A. Walter Dorn. (2016). Air power in UN operations. Routledge. Dorn, W. (2015). Wings for peace: The four facets of air power in UN operations. https://www.walterdorn.net/pdf/Air-Power-Peace-Operations_PLAF33_Dorn_2015.pdf 

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2. Burke, J. (2024, March 8). Five killed and 10 injured in gaza aid airdrop when parachute fails to open. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/08/gaza-aid-airdrop-kills-civilians-when-parachute-fails-to-open-witness-says 

3. Kalin, S. (2024, March 13). Gaza airdrops take huge effort and don’t solve hunger crisis. WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-airdrops-take-huge-effort-and-dont-solve-hunger-crisis-2c2f2d11 

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9. The aerial delivery of humanitarian aid in Syria: Options and constraints. The Washington Institute. (2016, May 27). https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/aerial-delivery-humanitarian-aid-syria-options-and-constraints

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