United Airlines hosted a charity event called ‘Fantasy Flight’ at Narita Airport on December 8th, inviting children with illnesses who rarely have the chance to fly, along with their guardians, for a journey to meet Santa Claus in the ‘North Pole.’ The children enjoyed an early Christmas atmosphere during the event.
This event has been conducted by United Airlines for over 30 years. In Japan, the first event at Narita Airport was held in 2018, and after a hiatus during the pandemic from 2020 to 2022, this marks the fourth installment. This year, in addition to Narita Airport, the event was held at 11 airports across the US, including Honolulu, Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Cleveland, Fort Lauderdale, Guam, Denver, New York, and three airports in London.
A total of 62 individuals, including 32 children and their 30 guardians, participated. The families were invited through the certified NPO ‘Shine On! Kids,’ which supports children battling pediatric cancer and severe illnesses.
At Narita Airport Terminal 1, the children gathered at the check-in counter to receive ‘boarding passes’ to the North Pole and got “departure stamps” in notebooks resembling passports before heading to the departure area. While waiting to board the airplane, characters from McDonald’s Japan, including ‘Donald McDonald,’ appeared to entertain everyone with gesture games and more.
Afterwards, participants boarded a Boeing 737-800 (tail number: N37293), which was decorated in a festive Christmas theme, with staff waving them off. They enjoyed in-flight meals such as cheeseburgers and chocolate cake, served by flight attendants. On the ground, United Airlines employees dressed as reindeer ran around in a tug vehicle imagined as Santa Claus’s sleigh, creating a Christmas atmosphere outside the windows.
When the announcement “We have arrived at the North Pole” was made, there was a photo session with the pilots in the cockpit, and the children were dazzled by the normally unseen cockpit area. After deplaning, they moved to a section of the domestic terminal transformed to resemble the North Pole. Here they interacted with volunteer staff through activities like cookie decorating, ornament making, and face painting. Towards the end of the event, Santa Claus appeared and individually handed out presents to the children.
According to United Airlines, the 737-800 used for the event was brought in by a ferry flight from Guam specifically for this day. Identified as flight UA3923, it departed Guam on December 7th at 3:43 PM and arrived at Tokyo/Narita at 6:40 PM. To participate in the event, four flight crew members and two flight attendants based in Guam also came to Japan. After the event, the plane departed Tokyo/Narita as ferry flight UA3924 on December 8th at 4:31 PM, returning to Guam.
Notice
This article was generated using automatic translation by GPT-4 API. The translation may not be accurate.
