FCm responds to uprising in North Africa
FCm Travel Solutions mounted a large-scale evacuation from North Africa involving the transportation of more than 10,000 people, 280 pets and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of personal items from Libya to Malta. The evacuation included journeys over sea and air following widespread antigovernment protests that erupted in Libya mid February causing violence, fighting and chaos.
Coordinated by a special crisis management team from FCm Malta in conjunction with FCm Libya, FCm played a crucial role in liaising with travel industry suppliers, authorities and government to safely transport employees from affected regions.
The strength of FCm's global network, operational capabilities and experience in emergency evacuations ensured clients had around-the-clock travel support and guidance when and where they needed it most.
Stage one - client evacuations
Early February 2011, FCm visited clients located in Libya to discuss exit strategies for their employees, many of whom worked in the oil, construction and health industries.
Ongoing trouble at the borders between Libya, Tunisia and Egypt meant the safest exit points from Libya were air and sea.
In the ensuing days, escalating violence across strife-torn Libya resulted in a flood of requests for evacuations from FCm clients. As panic gripped the country and thousands of nationals and ex-pats tried to flee, Tripoli Airport became choked and within hours all flights out of Tripoli were fully booked.
FCm liaised with a number of commercial airlines to organise larger aircraft for outbound flights from Tripoli. After discussions with FCm, certain airlines upgraded their aircrafts to Boeing 747s so more people could be flown out of the troubled capital. FCm also chartered two Hellenic 747s from Greece to mount a back-to-back operation that safely evacuated workers out of Libya and into Malta. FCm also secured permission for all of its chartered flights to land at Tripoli Airport.
To overcome connectivity challenges out of Malta, FCm organised charter flights to a range of destinations in the Far East.
By February 25, Tripoli airspace was declared closed and flights were no longer an evacuation option. FCm immediately started to focus on a sea evacuation and organised for two high-speed catamarans to carry people from Tripoli to the Port of Valletta in Malta. FCm set up a temporary hub at the Port of Valletta to help fast-track the passenger visa process and organised accommodation for travellers that required overnight stays in Malta before their onward journeys. Despite being closed for winter, FCm managed to persuade a number of Maltese hoteliers to open doors to business to accommodate evacuees.
FCm offered meet, greet and transfer services to VIP evacuees arriving at various destinations around North Africa and Europe. FCm also provided clients with cell phones and credit through company charge cards. During the initial two weeks of the evacuation, FCm Malta also provided space within its local office to a number of large corporates that required their own emergency operations to be set up and run locally.
Stage two - evacuating the live cargo
The haste at which people were evacuated from Libya meant that most of FCm's clients were forced to leave behind homes, belongings and pets. But much to the delight of many clients, FCm successfully evacuated 280 cats and dogs from Djerba, located in the Gulf of Gabes off the coast of Tunisia, onboard a Dash 8 aircraft to Malta.
As part of the evacuation FCm:
- arranged a special charter flight, through Medavia, to fly in and collect the animals using a Dash 8 aircraft from Malta with a reconfigured cabin that accommodated 30 animals per trip
- sourced a vet in Tripoli that assisted with the necessary paperwork
- managed the transportation of all animals from Tripoli to Djerba
- flew a staff member from Tripoli to Djerba to personally ensure the paperwork was in order for every animal. No pet was to be left behind!
- coordinated a temporary quarantine for the processing of animals on their arrival in Malta, prior to their onward flights.
Needless to say, FCm clients were overwhelmed with this feat and we have reports of many emotional reunions between our clients and their pets.
Stage three - personal belongings
While stage three of the evacuation continues, FCm to date has coordinated the necessary paperwork, including clearance from NATO and travel arrangements for 12 ship loads of personal belongings to be evacuated from Tripoli to Malta and then onward via commercial ships to various destinations around the world.
Securing the safety of your travellers
As part of FCm Secure, clients have access to travel evacuation plans including exit strategies for land, sea and air. FCm Secure is designed to build traveller awareness of existing and potential incidents around the world and provide the necessary travel support for emergency evacuations. These services can help minimise the travelassociated risks to your people.
FCm Secure is built on our 'MATT Logistics'
M - a global monitoring hub that scans global news and intelligence from the world's leading sources, receiving real-time news as it breaks in every region
A - immediately alerting you, where appropriate, of any significant or escalating events that might seriously inconvenience or endanger your travelling employees
T - providing immediate traveller tracking and confirming the current whereabouts of your people, by accessing your company's travel bookings
T - assisting with any necessary rescheduling of flights and hotel bookings, and advising on traveller rescue, recovery and evacuation services as required.
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