A special flight for children

Onboard Air New Zealand flight NZ4376 (NZHERO if you 'dial' the number on your phone) were fifty Koru Care kids. Koru Care is a charity that creates “once-in-a-lifetime experiences for Kiwi kids who need them the most,” as the beneficiaries of Koru Care are children with a range of illnesses and disabilities, and was founded by the airline's employees 35 years ago.

Therefore, the special 787-9 flight that took place on 15 May 2021, was Air Zealand’s way of providing a special experience for some of the children of Koru Care, an organisation that was actually started by a team of volunteers from the airline.

The special service took off at 12:10hrs local time on Saturday, from Christchurch Airport, using B787-9 ZK-NZE (msn 34334, in All Blacks livery), and lasted two hours and 41 minutes.

Air New Zealand says that its link with Koru Care is still strong after 35 years. In addition to flight support, airline employees still volunteer their time to make trips extra special for children. This includes creating homemade costumes, holding a ‘leaving party’ at the Air New Zealand lounge, inflight care, and even traveling with the kids as guardians to allow parents some well-earned time off. You could see this as the Kiwi equivalent to Dutch society Hoogvliegers.

The Hero flight created something special in the air, which could be seen on the various aircraft tracking apps. The national bird of New Zealand, the kiwi, was seen 'airborne'!