What is Humanitarian Travel?
Humanitarian travel is travel undertaken by people working to provide aid, emergency response, development support or other humanitarian assistance.
It can differ significantly from conventional business travel because journeys may need to be arranged at short notice, itineraries can change quickly and travellers may be visiting remote, vulnerable or higher-risk location, with aid and equipment.
Humanitarian organisations can also have complex requirements around funding, travel policy, traveller safety, audit and donor compliance. A specialist humanitarian travel programme requires a significantly different approach to that of a corporation, therefore we have shaped our people, processes and platforms to be able to provide effective management for these complexities.
Travel Savings with Humanitarian Fares
We have been supporting Humanitarian organisations since 1980, when we pioneered the very first specialist humanitarian airfare.
Why did we do this? Because we know that when they save money on travel, this frees up much-needed resources that can be more efficiently spent on accomplishing your organizational missions. We want our customers to save money on travel, so they can free up much-needed resources that can be more efficiently spent on accomplishing their organisational missions.
What is a humanitarian fare?
Humanitarian fares are specialist air fares available for eligible travellers carrying out humanitarian work.
Depending on the airline and route, they can provide discounted fares alongside benefits such as additional baggage allowance, extended ticketing periods, greater flexibility and reduced change or cancellation restrictions.
- Access discounted & exclusive fares which are not publicly available
- Hold fares for an extended period of time with no budget commitment
- While tickets are on hold, you can cancel completely free of charge up, removing financial risk
- Fewer fare restrictions, such as Saturday night stay
- Flexibility; many fares include free cancellation before departure, or changes free of charge/for a nominal fee.
- Extra baggage allowance.
These conditions can be particularly valuable for humanitarian organisations because deployments and project requirements can change quickly.
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Keeping Your Travellers Safe
Supporting people and teams travelling to some of the world’s most vulnerable and remote locations often requires complex and frequently changing itineraries as well as a constant focus on keeping travellers safe and secure. Key Travel are leaders in Risk Management, Traveller Tracking and Wellbeing toolsets and work in partnership with our customers to ensure they're meeting their duty of care responsibilities. find out more
Our in-house consultants are specialists in organising complex travel and understand the needs of those travelling in response to famine, civil-war, natural disasters or pandemics. We operate a 24/7 emergency service which is managed in-house. No matter what time of day or night, a knowledgeable consultant will take your call. Can't get to a phone, don't worry, we're also contactable 24/7 by SMS and WhatsApp.
We have robust crisis response processes and, when we're notified of an event, we'll assess the likely impact and take any necessary steps, including scaling up available resources and targeted contact at organization and traveller/booker level.
Travel Sustainability
Climate change is at the forefront of everyone's mind and many organisations have carbon reduction objectives in place. We work with our customers to reduce their travel related carbon footprint, as we understand travel is a necessity for those who travel to do good in the world.
This is why we provide our customers with a multi-pronged sustainable travel programme to help eliminate non-essential travel and mitigate the environmental impact of purposeful travel. Part of this programme includes implementing (at no extra cost) a proprietary methodology developed with the World Wildlife Fund UK, which enables customers to benchmark their travel de-carbonisation practices against peers and best practice, identifying areas for improvement.
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How Else Do We Support Humanitarian Travel?
Group Travel - when travelling as a Group (10+ people) did you know you may qualify for better terms than making individual travel arrangements? As a Key Travel customer, you have access to our Specialist Travel Team, who are experts in all areas of Group Travel find out more
With full policy integration, you can be sure donor and funding compliance regulations are met.
Working with over 2,000 NGO’s globally, we are very familiar with the Fly America Act and its rules, including Open Skies and codeshare agreements. Our Consultants will consider these restrictions when planning itineraries, ensuring compliance where relevant.
In summary, Key Travel exists to help you do good better.
Frequently asked questions about humanitarian travel
Who is eligible for humanitarian fares?
Eligibility for humanitarian fares varies by airline, destination and fare. They are generally designed for qualifying travellers undertaking humanitarian or aid-related work, but individual airline conditions determine who can use each fare.
Key Travel's specialist consultants can check the options available for a journey and identify whether the traveller and purpose of travel meet the relevant eligibility requirements.
How does Key Travel support urgent and last-minute humanitarian travel?
Key Travel's specialist consultants are experienced in arranging complex international travel, including journeys to remote or vulnerable destinations and travel required at short notice.
When an emergency or crisis changes travel plans, consultants can help identify alternative routes and travel options while considering the organisation's travel policy and the circumstances affecting the destination.
Key Travel also provides 24/7 support so humanitarian travellers and bookers can obtain assistance outside normal business hours when circumstances change.
Does Key Travel provide 24/7 support for humanitarian travellers?
Yes. Key Travel provides an in-house 24/7 emergency travel service so customers can reach a knowledgeable travel consultant at any time of day or night.
Support is available when travellers experience disruption or travel plans need urgent attention. Key Travel can also be contacted through additional channels including SMS and WhatsApp when accessing a telephone call is difficult.
This is particularly important for humanitarian organisations whose work does not follow conventional working hours and whose travellers may be operating across multiple time zones.
How does Key Travel help humanitarian organisations manage traveller risk?
Key Travel supports humanitarian organisations with travel risk management, traveller tracking, crisis response and traveller wellbeing.
For organisations sending people to remote, unstable or higher-risk locations, this can provide greater visibility of where travellers are and support a coordinated response when an incident may affect them.
Travel risk arrangements can also be aligned with an organisation's own policies and duty-of-care approach, helping travel, security and operational teams manage risk as part of the wider travel programme.
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How can Key Travel help humanitarian organisations meet donor and funding travel requirements?
Humanitarian travel programmes can incorporate an organisation's travel policy and funding requirements into the booking process, helping bookers and travellers follow agreed rules when arranging travel.
Key Travel's consultants are also familiar with requirements that can affect funded travel, including the Fly America Act, Open Skies agreements and relevant codeshare rules.
Travel reporting can provide additional visibility of expenditure, booking behaviour and policy compliance, helping organisations support internal reporting, audit and donor requirements.
How can humanitarian organisations reduce travel costs without reducing traveller support?
Humanitarian organisations can reduce travel costs through a combination of specialist fares, appropriate use of online booking, travel policy, supplier management, better visibility of travel spend and ongoing analysis of booking behaviour.
The lowest ticket price is not always the lowest overall cost. For humanitarian travel, factors such as baggage allowance, refundability and the cost of changing a journey can significantly affect the final cost of a trip.
Using specialist humanitarian fares where appropriate can therefore help organisations balance cost, flexibility and operational requirements while maintaining support for travellers.