airlift

/ˌɛərˈlɪft/

Other forms: airlifted; airlifting; airlifts

When a military plane is used to deliver supplies or move people, it's called an airlift. After a major earthquake, airlifts can bring in clean water and food to people in the affected area.

Whether they're removing citizens from dangerous situations or providing aid to victims of natural disasters, airlifts are useful in an emergency. Enormous military aircraft can hold a large quantity of supplies and deliver them quickly, even at great distances. As a verb, airlift means "fly to safety," so a government might airlift its embassy workers out of a country where war has suddenly broken out.

Definitions of airlift

1. noun

   transportation of people or goods by air (especially when other means of access are unavailable)
   synonyms: lift

   examples:

   Berlin airlift

   airlift in 1948 that supplied food and fuel to citizens of west Berlin when the Russians closed off land access to Berlin

   type of:

   conveyance, transfer, transferral, transport, transportation

   the act of moving something from one location to another
2. verb

   fly people or goods to or from places not accessible by other means
   “Food is airlifted into Bosnia”

   synonyms: lift

   type of:

   fly

   transport by aeroplane