Visitors from China love the Aloha State. The Chinese Island Province of Hainan also claims to be an Aloha State, but nothing goes over the original US State of Hawaii. Just a year ago Air China, China Eastern, and Hawaiian Airlines operated nonstop flights from Honolulu to China. Today no Chinese tourist is still left in Hawaii, but both cultural and tourism routes are very much alife.

This special relationship may have resulted in Hawaiian Airlines, and in partnership with the grassroots community group Every1ne Hawai‘i, today chartered a cargo flight to bring 2 million face masks to Hawai‘i from China.

In January and February, U.S. manufacturers shipped millions of dollars of face masks and other protective medical equipment to China y with encouragement from the federal government, a Washington Post review of economic data and internal government documents has found. This shipment blamed the Trump administration’s failure to recognize and prepare for the growing pandemic threat in the United States.

Two weeks ago coronavirus masks that France ordered from China were bought at the last minute by the United States as they waited to be loaded onto cargo planes, French officials have said. “Americans pay three or four times the amount we pay, and in cash,” said Jean Rottner, head of France’s eastern region, one of the areas worst affected by the coronavirus outbreak, according to reports by France Info.

Also two weeks ago Germany accused the United States of modern-day piracy when in an operation urgently needed 200,000 face mask for first responders in Berlin, Germany was “rerouted” to the United States in a secret US operation at Bangkok International Airport.

Today Hawaiian Airlines said that after a company-wide effort over several days to coordinate flight logistics and international approvals for the humanitarian mission, four Hawaiian pilots, two mechanics, and two airport operations employees departed Honolulu (HNL) just before 1 p.m. HST today aboard an Airbus A330 aircraft headed to Incheon (ICN), South Korea, where the crew will rest before continuing to Shenzhen (SZX), China.

The wide-body aircraft’s lower deck crew rest module, which is located underneath the passenger cabin, was removed in a special modification to maximize cargo space in order to accommodate the large shipment. The aircraft is scheduled to arrive in Honolulu just before 5 p.m. HST on Monday.

The boxes will be loaded on a fleet of “mask mobiles,” and Every1ne Hawai‘i will work with community nonprofits and the City and County of Honolulu to coordinate distribution of masks to protect Hawai‘i’s most vulnerable community