HNA project flies volunteers home for free
It used to take about four days for Sun Bo’en, 24, a volunteer who teaches at the country’s most remote school in the southwestern region, to reach home in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province in the north, for Spring Festival, which falls on Feb 16 this year.
He has taught first-grade students at the local middle school in Gongshan Dulong and Nu autonomous county, Yunnan province, for six months. Until last year, Sun would travel across mountainous roads for three days to reach Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, before flying back to his hometown.
This year, however, he will likely need no more than a day to reach home, thanks to HNA Group’s Sending Love Home project.
The project offers him a free return flight ticket. “I’m really grateful that the tickets shorten my overall journey time,” said Sun, who majors in politics at Yunnan University, via telephone.
A number of poverty -stricken students from renowned schools including the Renmin University of China and Nanjing University will go home for Spring Festival this year with tickets offered by HNA Group.
This year, the program will also cover some migrant workers and volunteers to the Western regions.
Since 2013, HNA Group’s Sending Love Home program has been offering free return tickets to more than 800 people during the Spring Festival holiday, the longest such break in China every year.
This year, about 11 aviation companies, including Hainan Airlines and Capital Airlines from the HNA Group family, will provide free return tickets to more than 130 people.
The air ticket program is part of HNA’s broader project aimed at “poverty alleviation”. HNA has worked
I’m really grateful that the tickets shorten my overall journey time.” Sun Bo’en, a 24-year-old volunteer teacher of a middle school in Gongshan Dulong and Nu autonomous county, Yunnan province 800 people received free return flight tickets from HNA Group since 2013 as part of its Sending Love Home project
with charitable organizations to select really needy people.
This year, passengers flying on HNA’s airlines were invited to join the charity efforts.
The program encourages flyers to use its digital platform HiApp to donate their airline miles to those in need of a free ticket.
On Dec 23 last year, HNA Group organized Global Run at 25 cities across the world, accumulating about 250,000 kilometers of marathon distance. Every kilometer run by a participant will be exchanged for the equivalent miles for the Sending Love Home project.
HNA Group has evolved from a regional airline based in Hainan province in South China into a Fortune Global 500 global company with about $145 billion in assets, over $90 billion in annual revenues, and an international workforce of 410,000 employees. Its diversified businesses range from technology and finance to tourism and logistics.