U.S. citizens and travel corporations have donated enough frequent flyer miles to provide airfare for tens of thousands of Afghan refugees as they resettle around the country.
To date, Welcome.US and Miles4Migrants have raised 300 million miles, roughly 40,000 flights, since Aug. 15, the organizations announced on Tuesday. About half have come from various airlines, including United, American, Delta, JetBlue, Alaska Airlines, Frontier, Air Canada, and adjacent companies, including Boeing and Tripadvisor Foundation.
The nonprofit organizations also announced a “Billion Mile Challenge” to secure another 30,000 flights, or 450 million frequent flyer miles.
“Welcome.US is founded on the belief that the American people are welcomers and the tremendous response we have seen in this campaign demonstrates just how true that is,” said Nazanin Ash, a former State Department official during the Bush and Obama administrations and CEO of Welcome.US, in a statement.
“There is no better way for Americans to say, ‘We are so eager to welcome you here,’ than to provide flights for our new Afghan neighbors to their new communities,” the CEO of the new nonprofit organization added. “We thank Miles4Migrants and all of our airline and travel industry partners for their leadership — and invite all Americans to transform their airline miles into a force for good.”
United Airlines has contributed the equivalent of 7,000 flights and American Airlines has given the cash value for 6,000 flights, with others donating a smaller number of flights.
“United Airlines is honored to continue supporting Afghanistan relief efforts by providing critically needed air travel to help evacuees at our military bases travel to their new homes,” said CEO Scott Kirby. “More than 8,000 United employees raised their hands to support the Afghan evacuee flights we operated as part of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program, and thousands of our customers have asked how they can help. We’re proud to partner with Miles4Migrants and Welcome.US to give everyone the chance to play a role in supporting this vital mission.”
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There have been roughly 9,000 Afghans resettled in the United States, with another 53,000 temporarily residing on one of eight military bases in the U.S. Another 3,700 will enter the U.S. in the next 10 days from bases overseas, according to former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, who oversees the Afghan refugee resettlement process, per the Associated Press.
