Evacuation companies can charge anything from $5,000 for a simple security escort to the airport to more than $300,000 for the charter of a jumbo jet and a 15-man armed security team.
With all of the news coming out of Egypt about the protests, this is the stuff that gets my attention. Right now there are numerous companies who are tasked with getting their clients out of Egypt. It could be wealthy travelers and businessmen, or it could be the study abroad students. And if you remember the chaos during the Israeli Lebanon war in 2006, there was a similar mad rush for companies to get their clients out of Lebanon. Hell, some of the same players from that ordeal are now involved with the Egypt crisis.
With this post, I wanted to highlight some of the players for this deal. SOS International, Control Risks, Diligence Management Consultants, and Northcott Global Solutions were the companies mentioned below. I am sure these companies will be busy escorting and evacuating hundreds, if not thousands of stranded people. These kind of operations don’t come cheap either. –Matt
Foreign firms evacuate top staff
Bradley Hope
Jan 31, 2011
Hundreds of expatriate businessmen and their families are leaving Egypt as protests rage into the sixth day and encounters with authorities become increasingly violent.
More than 600 people are in the process of being evacuated from across the country in a joint venture between the security companies Control Risks and International SOS.
Other security companies across the region and Europe said they were beginning to escort clients out of the country and make plans in case the situation worsened.
“Today has been the biggest day so far,” Tim Stear, the Control Risks country manager for the UAE, said yesterday. “The moment that led to many companies starting to withdraw was when the military was asked to intervene. There’s very little noticeable uniformed police on the street and lots of looting.”