Aer Lingus celebrates return of 100th flight delivering vital PPE for Irish hospitals

Aer Lingus has celebrated its 100th flight touching down to deliver vital Personal Protective Equipment for frontline workers.

The airline has been running the 'Critical Supply Operation' collecting the PPE from China since the end of March.

A staggering 1,300 tones of equipment has been transported back to Ireland since the scheme began.

Throughout the lockdown crews have been travelling abroad on up to five flights a day.

The return of Aer Lingus' 100th PPE flight. (Aer Lingus)

Each flight has five pilots, two engineers and one ground operations team member embarking on a 28 hour round-trip.

The Irish Defence Forces have also played their part in collecting the PPE from Dublin Airport and delivering it to the hospitals and care centres where it is needed most.

And on Saturday Aer Lingus celebrated its 100th flight returning back to Ireland with the latest batch of equipment.

An spokesman said: "Flight EI9023 carried the 100th load of PPE since our Critical Supply Operation began.

"In total, we've flown around 1,300 tonnes of PPE from China to Ireland."