Iberia Group Delivered 88 Human Organs for Transplant in 2020

• On Iberia, Iberia Express, and Iberia Regional/Air Nostrum flights

• Amounting to half of all human organ air shipments in Spain during the year, and more than half, if those by Iberia’s IAG partner airline Vueling are included.

• Iberia is a long-term collaborator with Spain’s National Transplant Organisation and does not charge for those life-saving services.

In Spain’s National Transplant Organisation registered a total of 709 human organs donated for transplant and shipped by air on private or commercial flights.

The three Iberia Group airlines --Iberia, Iberia Express, and Iberia Regional Air Nostrum-- carried 88 organs, 50% of all those transported aboard commercial flights. Iberia carried 60, Iberia Express 24, and Air Nostrum 4. A further 75 were carried by Vueling, Iberia’s partner airline in the IAG group. 

All these organs were livers and kidneys, which remain viable for the longest time before transplant.

The organisation says the number of such air shipments fell by 12.5% from 880 to 709 last year, due to the pandemic. Previously the annual total had grown by 43% between 2013 and 2020.

Since 2013, Iberia Group airlines have carried 670 organs for transplant, a contribution which the organisation has termed “vital” to the organ donation and transplant programme.

Iberia does not charge for these services, but Iberia ground staff and flight crews spare no effort to ensure they are given the utmost priority and care, in collaboration with the AENA airport authority.