The German Red Cross and Lufthansa Cargo have flown more than 15,000 camp beds in recent days from North America to Germany. On Tuesday morning Lufthansa flight LH419 from Washington landed at the airline’s hub in Frankfurt, with the B747-8I carrying approximately 1,000 camp beds. The remaining beds, divided over twelve flights, were transported to Frankfurt in the days preceding. The cargo airline undertook the transport at cost price.

The total volume of the cargo amounted to nearly 120 tonnes, divided between 271 pallets. The beds were desperately needed by refugees who are being looked after by the German Red Cross in emergency accommodation and were provided by both the Canadian and the American Red Cross. Thousands of camp beds were urgently needed in Germany because all available beds in Europe are already occupied.

“At the moment the German Red Cross are attending more than 288 emergency accommodations for approximately 82,000 refugees nationwide. In addition, we will support the federal government with the provision of further shelters for refugees. In order to carry this out, rapid logistics solutions, such as we are able to implement now with Lufthansa Cargo, are indispensable”, said the German Red Cross general secretary Christian Reuter.

Peter Gerber, Lufthansa Cargo CEO and chairman of the executive board, added: “We are very happy to be able to make a small contribution to the valuable work of the German Red Cross. Fast and uncomplicated help is called for in situations such as we are experiencing at the moment. It was only thanks to air transport that within a few days we managed to bring more than 15,000 camp beds to where they were so urgently needed.”