While the New York City region remains one of the areas in the U.S. most heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, personal protective equipment there continues to be in short supply, causing legislators to reach out for assistance.
Million Air, which opened its flagship FBO at Westchester County Airport (HPN) last year, answered the call, donating 8,000 surgical respiratory face masks and 1,100 N95 protective face masks. It coordinated with the Westchester Business Council and dispatched a Houston-based Cessna Citation S/II from its charter fleet to ferry the masks to its HPN location. From there, they were sent to a nearby medical facility.
"These are times that define a generation, and we cannot sit on the sidelines,” said company CEO Roger Woolsey. Emergency medical missions are nothing new to the Million Air charter fleet, which on average flies 10 time-critical organ-transplant missions a day and has tallied more than 30,000 since the company was founded.
“The aviation community has been crucial in transporting desperately needed medical supplies,” Woolsey explained, adding that private jets and the aviation industry as a whole are the most underutilized disaster-relief tools. “We are happy to play a small part in the logistics of supporting our frontline heroes, especially the staff and medical members of our White Plains Hospital who are so valiantly serving our New York and Westchester community.”