It was the Friday after Atlas’ support of Project Airbridge. Overwhelmed by the shortage of critical personal protective equipment (PPE) for those on the frontline, Jackie Marcus, Vice President Supply Chain at NYU Langone Health, thought maybe Atlas could help.
“We received their call asking if we could help, late on a Friday night – and we immediately responded ‘yes,’” said Michael Steen, Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. “We knew this was mission critical as their supplies were rapidly depleting. Our team immediately flew into action to find a solution.”
The Atlas commercial team in HDQ and in Asia worked with Flexport, our forwarding partner, to coordinate with NYU and its vendors to get the supplies en route as quickly as possible.
After much careful planning and collaboration across time zones and stations, Atlas Air was pleased to donate and execute the transportation. Two flights were operated for this mission, including one from Shanghai to New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport on April 9, and a second from Shanghai to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on April 13. Each 747-400 freighter was filled with medical gowns, face shields and masks necessary to protect frontline responders from the coronavirus.
“We are grateful to our crew and ground staff for working to make this happen,” said Michael. “The NYU Langone front line responders are our true heroes. We were humbled and honored to have the opportunity to show our support.”
