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Finnair flies aid to victims of earthquake in China

This news was published on Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 and is archived under Airlines.

Finnair is assisting the victims of the earthquake in China by flying tents and medical supplies to the country. The 900 tents being transported by Finnair will help approximately 5,000 people who have lost their homes. Each tent can house up to six people and their belongings. About 6,000 kg of medical supplies are also being transported. “We feel a great deal of sympathy for the victims of the earthquake in Sichuan and its neighbouring provinces in China and we want do our part in helping them. The best way for us to do this is by transporting aid supplies as air cargo from Finland to China, which ensures that the help reaches those in need quickly. We are pleased that we were able to act quickly with the first aid cargo load being on its way within 24 hours of the request reaching us,” says Finnair Deputy CEO Henrik Arle.

The first lot of 360 tents left Helsinki Airport for China on Wednesday evening. More tents will be on board the airline’s next daily Beijing and other China flights. The tents have been manufactured in Finland and their value in total is 650 000 euros. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs is assisting the aid operation with 500 000 euros and the remaining costs are being covered from funds collected by the Finnish Red Cross. The Chinese Red Cross will transport the tents to the disaster area.

The medical supplies, which include bandaging material, examination gloves and id-wrist straps for patients, will be flown to China via Beijing at the start of next week on Monday and Tuesday. Finnair is flying the tents and medical supplies free of charge. At the moment there is a huge shortage of air cargo capacity due to the disasters in China and Myanmar and thanks to Finnair’s actions, the Finnish Red Cross saves monies from its disaster fund. The costs of a separate cargo aircraft would have reached at least 150 000 euros.

 

Source: Finnair
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