Project Aims to Increase Charity Use of Empty Space on Planes

A group of air-trade financiers is working to improve international aid and emergency-response efforts by more efficiently linking relief organizations with airlines that have available space on flights, The Wall Street Journal reports.

At the Web site of ISTAT AirLink, a project of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading’s foundation, charities can list people and supplies that need transport, and airlines post empty seats and cargo capacity. The program’s first shipment in August saw Air Canada and South African Airways carry 300 pounds of antibiotics to Malawi for the British branch of the aid group Mercy Corps.

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