Air bp provides support during COVID-19

As the impact of COVID-19 touches every corner of the globe, Air bp has been active in supporting communities around the world through a number of initiatives, working with customers and partners.

In France it is supporting an initiative led by Aviation Sans Frontières, an aviation charity dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance by donating 60,000 litres of jet fuel for flights dedicated to transporting medical staff and equipment between French hospitals. These flights are carried out free of charge when requested by medical authorities drawing on its 50 locations in the country.

In the UK, Air bp is providing free jet fuel for use by the helicopters of a number of UK air ambulance services, supporting their life-saving work during the pandemic. All these services are charitable organisations it already supplies with jet fuel. Yorkshire Air Ambulance and Great Western Air Ambulance receive fuel directly from Air bp, whilst Wales Air Ambulance and Midlands Air Ambulance Charity are supplied by Air bp customer Babcock International.

Providine fuelling services to the Australian Royal Flying Doctor Service

In Australia Air bp has been working with its procurement team to donate 35,000 N95 masks to the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) for their frontline staff. Its donation builds on a long-standing relationship with the organization which spans decades of providing bespoke fuelling services. Air bp has also been a national partner of the RFDS for the past three years. Also in Australia, Air bp’s rapid response helped to keep a Qantas Sydney to London ‘Kangaroo’ route going after Singapore banned stopovers in late-March. Air bp provided an average of 266,000 litres of fuel per flight at Darwin airport, enabling aircraft to continue on the historic non-stop 16-hour flight.

In the US Air bp is donating three million gallons of jet fuel to customers FedEx and Alaska Airlines to support the timely delivery of medical supplies and other essential goods, such as food and mail, to areas of the U.S. at greatest risk for COVID-19. It is also offsetting the carbon emissions of all donated fuel deliveries through the BP Target Neutral programme.

In China, it has been providing support through its two joint ventures. To date, the South China Blue Sky joint venture has fuelled more than 800 epidemic relief and repatriation flights. Meanwhile at Shenzhen Airport, staff working with Shenzhen Chengyuan Aviation Oil Co. have been working round the clock to maintain aviation fuel supplies for chartered flights carrying medical and relief equipment to Wuhan and other cities in China.

Jon Platt, CEO, Air bp commented: “We are pleased to be able to play our part in supporting our communities during these difficult times. Our commitment to safe, reliable fuelling operations remains unwavering and we’re grateful for the hard work of our front-line Air bp operators who continue to enable us to meet the needs of our customers.”

Air bp’s efforts form part of the wider bp response to COVID-19, which includes a $2 million USD donation to the WHO’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund; supporting mental health charity Mind to help more people access mental health support across the UK; providing free fuel to UK emergency service vehicles; providing discounted fuel for first responders, doctors, nurses and hospital workers in the US and donating bp’s supercomputing capability to help halt the spread of the virus.

BlueSky Business Aviation News | 21st May 2020 | Issue #558

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