Korean Air chartered flights to send relief goods to Turkey
Workers are loading relief supplies on a Korean Air cargo plane bound for Istanbul at the Incheon International Airport on March 20. Courtesy of Korean Air
By Kim Jae-heun
Korean Air offered free transport of relief supplies last month to Turkey, which is still suffering after a series of earthquakes, according to company officials, Wednesday.
The air carrier sent a Boeing 777F cargo plane from Incheon to Istanbul at 12:25 a.m. on March 20 to transport relief materials free of charge. It sent 45 tons of relief goods, including tents, sleeping bags and blankets.
The supplies will be delivered to earthquake victims through the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) of Turkey.
Korean Air's special charter flight took place as the company responded to a request by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) for humanitarian assistance.
“We decided to charter the cargo flight to help KOICA's humanitarian relief efforts for the victims in Turkey. We hope that the relief supplies will help those who are still suffering from the earthquake damage to overcome the current difficulties as soon as possible,” a Korean Air official said.
Based on its leading air cargo transport skills and global network, Korean Air has previously provided charitable relief to Nepal in 2015, Fiji in 2016, Peru in 2017 and Laos in 2018, after they were hit by natural or manmade disasters such as earthquakes, cyclones, floods or dam collapses.
“We plan to play a leading role in overseas emergency relief activities as a global airline and actively participate in humanitarian support in the future too,” the official said.