Provision of Humanitarian Air Services in South Sudan United Nations Humanitarian Air Service (UNHAS) provides safe, reliable, effective, and efficient air transport services for the humanitarian community in South Sudan. UNHAS transports light cargo and passengers as well as conducts medical and security evacuation. In 2016, more than 230 organizations have used the common service including NGOs (66%), UN agencies (33%), donor community and Government personnel involved in humanitarian activities (1%). These organisations depend on UNHAS to access remote areas where humanitarian operations are ongoing.
Renewed violence in Wau in Western Bahr el Ghazal and outbreak of war in the country’s capital, Juba in July 2016 has further exacerbated the humanitarian crisis, displacing tens of thousands of people and pushing already food insecure population into acute food insecurity. The humanitarian community aims to scale up operations to meet the needs of the affected population during the second half of 2016 particularly in the Greater Bahr el Ghazal and Greater Equatorial regions. Activities will include the reactivation of Rapid Response missions and increased support in static operations. UNHAS will maintain the capacity to support the air transport needs of the humanitarian actors and sustain support to deployment of inter-agency emergency assessment and rapid response mission teams based on need.  
Out of 5.1 million people targeted to receive humanitarian response in 2016, only 2.8 million people have been reached as at the end of July. The provision of the common air services will remain a critical enabler to deliver urgently needed aid to the population in need. 
However, poor road network, seasonal rains, vast distances between project implementation sites and the ongoing conflict make air transport the only means to access many of these affected population. Further, there is no local commercial alternatives for passenger air transport services, as existing commercial service providers do not meet the safety and technical standards required , which makes UNHAS one of the few options available.
From January to July, UNHAS has transported 64,119 passengers and 671.3 metric tonnes of cargo. The monthly operational performance dropped by more than 50 percent after the conflict resulting to the transportation of only 4,800 passengers. Despite this, UNHAS is unable to scale down the aircraft capacity due to contractual commitments and the associated cost of de-positioning and positioning aircraft when operational presence is restored to normal level. The operation will maintain a fleet of 9 fixed wing aircraft and 4 helicopters based strategically in Juba, Rumbek, Bor and Wau to ensure regular and reliable services. The 19-seater Let-410 aircraft based in Wau will play key role in supporting scale up of operations in Greater Bahr el Ghazal.  
UNHAS targets to meet the travel needs of 250 humanitarian organizations and has served more than 60 scheduled destinations since the beginning of the year. UNHAS User Group will continue to provide information on the areas of highest need for access during the monthly User Group Meeting. Identified priority locations will be added to UNHAS weekly schedule and flight frequency increased or reduced based on need.