Together, Boeing, its airline customers and relief agencies are helping people all over the globe. When airline customers accept new Boeing airplanes, there generally is cargo space available on the delivery flight. Through the Boeing International Relief Delivery Flights program, this available space is used to ship medical supplies, food, clothing and educational materials to people in need or crisis near where the new airplane is bound.
Over the years, Boeing International Relief Delivery Flights have flown many humanitarian missions: supplies and medicine for flood victims in China, surplus Boeing computers for school children in South Africa, wheelchairs to a foundation for disabled children in Mexico, medical supplies and equipment for clinics in rural Kenya, and aid to victims of Chernobyl and Kosovo.
For more information, contact Pauline Marshall at 206-655-1361, a Northwest Region Global Corporate Citizenship representative, who oversees this program.
How it works
Boeing receives a request from a qualified relief agency, then contacts a customer airline with a planned delivery to the area. After the airline agrees to help, the relief agency provides an inventory of the goods to be shipped, packages the supplies for air transport and brings them to the Boeing Delivery Center. Boeing loads the supplies onto the airplane, and the airline flies them to the airline's home base.
There, the relief agency meets the airplane, clears the supplies through customs and distributes them through an established network to get them to people in need.
Guidelines for relief agencies
- To be eligible, an agency must have a U.S. Internal Revenue Service 501(c)(3) nonprofit designation with a tax identification number and must routinely ship more than half of its goods via other carriers or programs.
- The relief agency needs to provide evidence of a credible, established distribution network and show that the goods have been requested. The agency must be able to obtain duty-free clearance or pay customs duty and be able to physically handle, promptly receive and clear the goods through customs.
- The agency must gather, package and inventory the cargo and provide a written inventory in a format acceptable to the airline delivering the goods.
- All relief flights are offered with the understanding that space is limited. Agencies must be willing to accept delays, cancellations or transport on a space-available, stand-by basis.
- Agency partners must be willing to assume their share of any additional expenses that might be required.