Southwest Airlines donates 10k flights to patients in need

Dallas-based Southwest Airlines announced that they will donate 10,000 roundtrip flights in 2017 to benefit families who need to travel for specialized medical care. This travel is donated in an effort to reduce the financial burden of serious illness on individuals and families.

Southwest is extending a healing hand through partnership with Musicians On Call (MOC), a nonprofit organization that brings live and recorded music to the bedsides of patients in healthcare facilities across the country.

The airline has donated flights in the past for this same purpose, but this is the largest scale so far. Southwest partnered with 75 hospitals and medical organizations and is giving them discretion concerning which patients get the tickets.

Since the Southwest Airlines Medical Transportation Grant Program's inception in 2007, more than 59,000 complimentary roundtrips-valued at more than $23 million-have been distributed to organizations in 28 states. The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center has been a recipient since the program began 10 years ago.