Send Love Home -- HNA Brings Overseas Students Back to Their Families

BEIJING, Feb. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- At 9am Beijing time on January 31, 2013, Ding and Zhang arrived in Beijing with the help of an HNA programme called Send Love Home. Ding is a graduate student of music at Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia and works part-time to cover his expenses as both of his parents are unemployed. Zhang, a student of psychology at Saint Petersburg State University, also works part-time jobs in order to pay his expenses and has never asked for a penny from his family. They seldom go back home because of the high travel costs and this year they are very excited to spend the Spring Festival with their families.

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On February 2nd, Jie who studies violin at Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Rostock arrived in Beijing. He was very excited and told the journalist, "I made it home before Spring Festival! Thanks HNA for helping me come home!"

With Chinese New Year 2013 just around the corner, HNA Group has launched the Send Love Home Programme which offers free airline tickets to those in need. Those benefiting include college students in Beijing and Hainan Province, volunteers of Western Plan who help the development of provinces like Gansu and Xinjiang and Chinese students studying abroad in Germany and Russia. This year, Send Love Home will help about 100 people get back home.

To Chinese people, Spring Festival is the most important festival of the year and is when every single Chinese person, including overseas students, spares no effort to return home and gather with their family. HNA collected a name list of students in need through the recommendation of Chinese embassies abroad where HNA's flights can reach and worked to get them involved in Send Love Home. Within 3 days, seven overseas students in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Berlin and five Chinese medical volunteers in Angola were reached. The students have finally returned home safely. More people will make their way home on February 7th and gather with their families on New Year's Eve.

HNA Group is a conglomerate with its three core businesses in aviation tourism, modern logistics and modern financial services. Hainan Airlines, under the ownership of HNA, is one of the 6 SKYTRAX 5-star airlines as well as one of the four biggest airlines in China. 2013 marks HNA's 20th anniversary. Being grateful to society, HNA is devoted to helping charities as part of its goal to fulfill its corporate social responsibility. During the past 20 years, HNA has subsidized students in need, dug "goodness wells", brought light to cataract patients in Africa, and was involved in the evacuation of overseas Chinese from Libya. In 2012, HNA was recognized by the United Nations for its efforts in corporate social responsibility and honored with the "South-South Awards-CSR Award".