Overcoming countless logistical challenges, Air Canada and WestJet were able to send relief flights to Haiti within days of the earthquake that devastated the country on Jan. 13. And a third relief flight is in the works.

Air Canada’s relief flight to Port-au-Prince arrived on Jan. 16 carrying a full load of humanitarian relief supplies. (ONEXONE Foundation)

Such flights are extremely complicated to organize, a "huge internal logistical undertaking," Air Canada spokesperson Isabelle Arthur told CBC News. But the fact that both flights happened less than a week following the disaster is the result of lessons learned organizing similar flights to previous disasters.

Air Canada's flight was a collaboration with the ONEXONE Foundation and a consortium of Canadian businesses and organizations that flew supplies and personnel from Montreal to Port-au-Prince on Jan 16.

The plane carried medical supplies, blankets, tents, sleeping bags, flashlights, batteries and bottled water to be distributed to victims by the on-the-ground relief agency Partners In Health.

The plane also carried 100 search-and-rescue technicians from the Montreal Police Service, the Montreal fire department and the Quebec provinicial police.

Crewed by volunteers

Both flights were crewed and serviced by employees who volunteered their help, including those who worked around the clock to load the aircraft. The return Air Canada flight later was used to transport evacuees out of the stricken country.

WestJet's flight left from Toronto on Jan. 19, a collaboration with World Vision, a Christian relief agency that has been working in Haiti for 30 years and has a staff of more than 800 in the country. WestJet has also been making cargo space available to other aid agencies on scheduled flights to Miami.

Michael Messenger, World Vision's vice-president of public affairs, said WestJet approached them. The airline's timing was opportune.

"We had our staff [in Haiti] saying, 'We need water, we need food and we need medical supplies,'" Messenger explained.

Meanwhile World Vision had donated supplies waiting at a warehouse near Pearson International Airport in Toronto but had no immediate way of delivering them until WestJet made its offer.

'Under every seat there were boxes of medical supplies'—Michael Messenger, World Vision

"The hold where the luggage usually is was completely filled with medical supplies. All the overhead bins and under every seat there were boxes of medical supplies we were sending down," said Messenger.

The airlines have provided planes for relief agencies responding to events as varied as the tsunami in Southeast Asia, which struck just after Christmas 2004. Similar flights also assisted the relief effort following Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Pakistan, both in 2005.

To be used for relief work, an aircraft must be taken out of regular service and the hole in the schedule filled. Also, the 75 employees who volunteer must be brought together with the aircraft, which must then be loaded quickly.

The airline must establish that it's safe to land in the disaster area, and co-ordinate with the federal government, which must approve the flight when commercial service has been suspended. The airline must also satisfy authorities in the disaster area that the relief material and supplies will be unloaded quickly.

"Once we arrive and the cargo hatch is open, these goods are ready to be taken away and delivered in a timely manner," said Arthur.

Experience has taught the airlines to prepare for the possibility that there will be no ground support to help unload the plane. The plane must also carry spare parts.

Team effort

It's a team effort, with every department bringing its expertise and experience to bear, even including the inflight crew anticipating what would be needed on the return leg of the Air Canada flight, which will bring refugees back.

"They said 'Let's go and get some diapers and baby formula on board,'" Arthur explained. "That will be useful."

And as employees watch the images come in from the disaster, there's no shortage of volunteers.

"Within hours, the phones are ringing, lists are being made and people are volunteering," said Arthur.

Third flight planned

Air Canada told CBC News it is now working with the Canadian government on running another humanitarian flight to Port-au-Prince, tentatively scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 23. The airline said details regarding the supplies and relief agencies involved are still being finalized.

Help from the aviation industry also comes in other forms. Montreal-based Aeroplan on Jan. 14 launched an initiative in which members can donate their miles to relief agencies so they can fly workers to Haiti and rent cars or buy gear when they arrive.

The math on what you can get for one million donated Aeroplan Miles is formidable: 25 relief workers on a flight to Haiti, 200 days of car rentals for them on the ground, or 65 days in a hotel. As of Jan. 19, 4.6 million miles have been donated by Aeroplan members.

Two Haitian-born priests, Father Joseph Willy Junius and Father Ronald Legerme (right), bless Air Canada's relief before departure from Montreal on Jan 16. (Guillet Photography)

There are rewards, though, for those who watch the pictures of devastation and feel powerless to help.

When two Haitian-born priests addressed everyone over the public address system before the Air Canada flight left, and blessed both the plane and the people on board, it was "quite a moment," said Arthur.

"You could hear everyone praying," she said.

World Vision's Michael Messenger said it might be tempting to view these donated flights as cynical public relations initiatives in an ongoing competition to get a bigger share of the market, but that's not the impression he gets from working with both airlines.

He said everyone, from the airlines to the airport authorities, are "really committed to just working together, leaving aside some of those business things, at least in the short-term, and doing the right thing and getting the relief that we can out of the abundance we have here," he said.