Hainan Airline sends students home for holiday

Ding Xiaoxiao is usually unable to afford a trip home for the holidays. He is a graduate student of music at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia and works part-time to cover his tuition and expenses. Both of his parents are unemployed.

But on Jan 31 at 9 am, Ding arrived in Beijing to celebrate Spring Festival with his family. A program called Send Love Home made his holiday wish come true.

On Feb 2, Peng Sijie who studies violin at Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Rostock, arrived in Beijing. He was very excited.

"I made it home before Spring Festival," Peng said. "Thanks HNA for helping me come home!"

Before the Chinese Lunar New Year, Hainan Airline Group (HNA) set up the Send Love Home program, which provided free airline tickets to people in need. College students in Beijing and Hainan province, Western Plan volunteers who help development in China, and Chinese students studying abroad in Germany and Russia were some of the 100 people that returned home for the holidays this year thanks to HNA.

Spring Festival is China's most important holiday of the year. It's a time when every single Chinese person, including overseas students, spares no effort to return home and gather with their family.

HNA collected a list of students in need through recommendations from Chinese embassies in countries where HNA flights operate. Within three days of the program's launch, Send Love Home representatives had reached seven overseas students in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Berlin, as well as five Chinese medical volunteers in Angola.

HNA Group is a conglomerate with its three core businesses in aviation tourism, modern logistics and modern financial services. The company is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2013.

HNA is devoted to helping charities as part of its goal to fulfill its corporate social responsibility (CSR). At the 2012 South-South Awards, the United Nations presented HNA the CSR Award.