Breeze Airways Flies Hurricane Relief Volunteers To New Orleans For Free

An airline is flying hundreds of people from across the country for free to New Orleans to help the city recover from Hurricane Ida.

The flights for those people were actually free. The company donated $1 million in free flights for anyone travelling to New Orleans to help rebuild.

On Monday, a plane carrying dozens of passengers to New Orleans took off from the Tulsa International Airport.

After they've picked up their luggage and cut through busy airport crowds, many of them will head out into the city to do anything they can to help after Hurricane Ida.

Breeze Airways CFO Trent Porter said the million dollars the airline is donating for the flights equals about 10,000 roundtrip tickets.

Porter said the company has seen a huge number of applicants like first responders, laborers, volunteers who all have a plan to help with rebuilding efforts in some way. Roughly 90 percent of the applicants have been approved.

"We're an airline, we move people, so let's move some first responders, some volunteers, to get the help that the people in New Orleans need," Porter said. "It's awesome to see the kindness and generosity in people, and to be able to reward that kindness is rewarding for us."

The program was announced just over a week ago and already it's taken off in a big way, with hundreds of volunteers heading from one of Breeze's 16 cities it serves into New Orleans.

There are still slots available for a free flight to New Orleans if you're looking to volunteer your time. Registration ends in two days.