A spokesman for Air Charter Service said its first relief flight from the UK, a government-chartered B757, was forced to fly from London Gatwick into Santo Domingo in the neighbouring Dominican Republic.

The air traffic control system at Port-au-Prince (PAP) had since come back into operation, but the airport was highly congested, the spokesman added.

The first priority was to get search and rescue teams in, plus people to assess the scale of the humanitarian need, but food, blankets and tents were also on the way.

ACS’s London office has chartered further passenger and cargo aircraft, the group has additional aircraft operating from Scandinavia, and flights organised by the company’s Spanish office are also underway. ACS’s New York office has coordinated five relief flights so far.

Chapman Freeborn Airchartering said its offices worldwide were working on a large number of charter requests from international aid agencies following the Haiti earthquake.

The first cargo consignments from Europe, comprising rescue equipment, medical supplies, blankets, high energy biscuits, tents and plastic sheeting, departed on Thursday evening on IL-76 freighters.

Chapman Freeborn’s operations subsidiary, Paragon Global Flight Support, confirmed that PAP was mainly restricted to search-and-rescue and military flights. Limited loading equipment was available, and there were no agents to unload larger aircraft. Lighting was not adequate for night landings and fuel was in short supply.

Wide-bodied freighters were still using Santo Domingo, but marketing manager Andy James said 40-tonne payload IL-76s from Germany and Spain hoped to fly direct into PAP on Friday, together with a DC-8F from Belgium.

He envisioned charter requirements continuing over a long period, with reconstruction equipment needed once the immediate aid requirements had been met. The company provided logistics support two years ago, when Haiti was damaged by hurricanes and floods.

Deutsche Post DHL has sent in a logistics team to help in the international relief effort. The company will work at PAP to manage the flow of inbound freight and will help transfer and distribute goods in cooperation with the United Nations. “This disaster is going to require exceptional logistics skills as the country had poor infrastructure even before the earthquake struck,” said Chris Weeks, DHL director of humanitarian Affairs.

UPS pledged more than US$1 million in cash and in-kind support to the relief effort through its charitable arm, The UPS Foundation. The funds will be divided between The American Red Cross, Care, Unicef and other organizations that assist with long-term relief activities.

Meanwhile the Independent Pilots Association, representing 2,800 pilots flying for UPS, said its members are volunteering to help the relief effort. Capt. Robert Thrush, president of the IPA noted, 'This is not the first time our members have stepped-up and volunteered their services to move aid to a disaster area. Back in 2005, more than 500 IPA crew members volunteered to staff flights into Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana to help alleviate the suffering from hurricane Katrina.'