The 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that struck off the cost of Japan this Friday, has caused devastating damage and continues to wreck havoc on Japanese cities and farmland in the northern part of the country. While world leaders and foreign governments pledge to provide resources and aid to Japan, private companies such as Paramount Business Jets and One Concierge are also doing their part to prepare for evacuation efforts and assistance.
Although most major airports and sea ports remain currently closed and/or inaccessible, there is an increasing demand and backlog of both commercial aircraft and vessels that need to resume service to Japan as well aircraft and vessels that need to be mobilized to evacuate people. The Sendai airport among others, and all Japanese ports have been shut down following a barrage of waves that have turned runways to rivers and capsized large vessels in the Japanese ports.
Despite this, efforts are already well underway by both Paramount Business Jets and One Concierge to mobilize a large fleet of airliner aircraft as well as passenger ships and ferries to evacuate stranded residents, visitors, foreign personnel and more from the affected areas. “We’ve established a crisis response team to deal with the current situation and are working with local charter operators and our partners in the region to help us mobilize and evacuate people as conditions permit,” said Richard Zaher, Chief Executive Officer for Paramount Business Jets. One Concierge, a leading concierge provider has dealt with similar situations in the past and has assisted in evacuation efforts for natural disasters, civil unrest and other dangerous situations. “We are fortunate to be able to work with an outstanding global network of partners to help us aid in this situation. Their local knowledge and availability of resources (such as aircraft and ships) prove invaluable in circumstances such as these and enables us to quickly and efficiently extract people from the effected areas as ports and airports open again,” said Arman Motiwalla, Chief Executive Officer for One Concierge.
Although Japanese ports and airports remain currently closed, evacuation efforts and assistance to other effected regions such as Hawaii are also underway. In order to position these vessels effectively and to cater to evacuation efforts in both Hawaii, Japan and the west coast (if needed), aircraft and ships are going to have to be re-positioned to evacuate people in the affected regions, but limited availability of these vessels is putting a high demand on available resources.
Organizations, individuals and corporations looking to charter aircraft and/or ships for large scale evacuations and/or private charters from the effected regions should contact One Concierge at +1 (800) 628-9701 and/or Paramount Business Jets at +1 (877) 727-2538.
