By Mark Briffa, CEO of Air Partner plc

There is no doubt that this is an extremely worrying and challenging time for everyone, with far-reaching health, economic and societal ramifications. Governments and NGOs globally are workingaround-the-clockto limit the spread of COV-19, and a necessarypart of this is the enforcement of some travel bans and restrictions. However, as more and more countries issueblanket banson air travel and transport, my concern is that this could do more damage than good.Global air infrastructure has always playedan important role at times of global crisis, and it must be allowed to do so now.Airports and airways need to remainopen for urgent travel and transportation, but currently the trend is going in the other direction, towards universal closure, despite the fact that there are still countless people stranded around the world, with limited –if any –means of getting back to their home countries. Presently, there are an estimated 300,000 to 1 million Britons stranded overseas, many of whom cannot afford the drastically inflated ticket prices for the few flights that are operating back to the UK. Governments must havetheappropriate designations and approvals in place to enable evacuations and repatriationstotake place.Just last month, we worked with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) to repatriatepassengersfrom the Diamond Princesscruiseship, which was quarantined off the coast of Yokohama in Japan. People are still in these types of situation, and we are currently working with customers in the cruise sector to repatriate significant volumes of passengers. We must be allowed to continue to do so. Earlier in the year, we also carried outtwo evacuation flights from Wuhan to the UK, carrying over 300 Britishand EU nationalsin total, as part of which wewereable to arrange for 407 boxes of medical supplies to be flown out on the first positioning flight and an additional 200 boxes on the second. This movement of vital supplies is crucial, and there is no faster way than by air. Back in2014 and 2015, we saw first-hand just how important this was when we participated in the humanitarian response to the Ebola epidemicby flying aid tothe affected regions. At the peak of the crisis, our Freight team was operating flights every 48 hours carrying cargo of medical equipment and supplies, vehicles, construction materials and protective clothing.We are already seeing worrying media reportsabout the shortages faced by hospitals around the world, so let airfreight do its bit.We have a proud history of emergency flying on behalf of the NHS, and this type of activity shouldn’t stop.While it’s understandable that at this time the main concern ofgovernments globally is the health and safety of its citizens, it would also be very dangerous tounderestimate the very severe economic repercussions of shutting down supply chains. Who knows if they will be able to start up again? To the extent that we can, we need to keep the economy moving, and this necessarilyinvolves transport.Our business, like all others in the global aviation industry, is feeling the impact of COVID-19, but we all understand that, in the health interests of global citizens, travelmust be restricted in orderto contain the virus. But the key here is that travel is restricted, not ‘blanket banned’. We simply ask that proportionate measures are taken. We opened up the skies so that we could transport people and goods quickly and efficiently around the globe: let’s not close them entirely when we need to do this more than ever, in order to fly people safely home and get supplies to those who desperately need them. ENDSEnquiries:TB Cardew (Financial PR advisor)020 7930 0777Tom Allison07789 998 020Alycia MacAskill07876 222 703Joe McGregor07766 231 520About Air Partner:Founded in 1961, Air Partner is a global aviation services group providing aircraft charter and aviation safety & security solutions to industry, commerce, governments and private individuals, across civil and defence organisations. The Group has two divisions: Air Partner Charter, comprising Group Charter (formerly Commercial Jets), Private Jets, Freight and Remarketing; and Air Partner Safety & Security (formerly Consulting & Training), which comprises Baines Simmons and Redline Assured Security.Group Charter charters large airliners to move groups of any size. Private Jets offers the Company’s unique pre-paid JetCard scheme and on-demand charter for up to 19 people. Freight charters aircraft of every size to fly almost any cargo anywhere, at any time. Air Partner Remarketing provides comprehensive remarketing programmes for all types of commercial and corporate aircraft toa wide range of international customers.Baines Simmons offers Aviation Safety Management, Fatigue Risk Management, Air Traffic Services, Wildlife Hazard Management and Aircraft Registry Services. Redline Assured Security delivers government-standard security training and solutions.Air Partner has 17 offices across three continents, with its headquarters located alongside Gatwick airport in the UK. The group employs around 450 aviation professionals globally and operates 24/7. Air Partner is listed on the London Stock Exchange (AIR) and is the only publicly listed air charter broker and aviation safety & security consultancy. It is ISO 9001:2015 compliant for commercial airline and private jet solutions worldwide.More information is available on the company’s website (www.airpartner.com).