UN: Aid flights get top priority at Haiti airport

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

ROME, Italy (AP) -- The UN food agency reached an agreement yesterday with the US-run airport in the Haitian capital to give aid flights priority in landing -- a deal that came after the military was criticised for giving top billing to military and rescue aircraft.

At an emergency meeting in Brussels, meanwhile, the European Union's 27 nations pledged more than euro400 million ($575 million) to help quake survivors and rebuild the French-speaking Caribbean nation after last week's massive earthquake.

The United States has taken over the Port-au-Prince airspace and incoming flights have to register with the Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.

But an air slot system similar to one used during the Indonesian tsunami emergency and the Pakistan earthquake has been established to make sure that planes carrying food and medicine get priority in landing, World Food Programme executive director Josette Sheeran told reporters.

"Even though the slots are limited and the need is great, we now have the co-ordination mechanism to prioritise the humanitarian flights coming in," Sheeran said.

Over the weekend, the aid group Doctors Without Borders complained of skewed priorities and a supply bottleneck at the airport amid reports that US military flights were getting priority. French, Brazilian and other officials complained about the airport's refusal to let their aid planes land, forcing many flights to end up in the neighbouring Dominican Republic, a day's drive away.

Yesterday, French Co-operation Minister Alain Joyandet urged the United Nations to investigate the dominant US role in the relief operation, claiming that international aid efforts were supposed to be about helping Haiti, not "occupying" it.

Haitians have complained that food, medicine and water have been woefully slow in reaching them. Sheeran, however, said the WFP aid pipeline was on track, compared to previous natural disasters in terms of aid distribution and insisted aid distribution was improving "hour by hour".

The UN has estimated that three million Haitians -- one-third of the country's population -- were affected by the January 12 quake and two million require food assistance. The WFP reported that 67,000 people in Haiti received food Sunday and 97,000 were expected to get ready-to-eat meals yesterday.

Still, Italian civil protection chief Guido Bertolaso said there was little co-ordination in the relief effort and the international community needs "strong leadership" to channel aid where it is most needed.

"We are still lacking someone who will give orders and tell each country what it must do," he said in Brussels while attending an emergency EU meeting on Haiti.

At that meeting, the European Union Commission said it would contribute euro330 million ($474 million) in urgent and long-term aid while EU member states poured euro92 million ($132 million) in emergency aid alone.