For 32 years, Spain has been the world leader in transplants. With a record figure of almost 5,700 transplants performed in 2023, the exchange of organs between autonomous communities is increasingly important, interventions that represented 23% of the total last year, with more than 1,300. This is where airlines come into play, with which the National Transplant Organization (ONT) has agreements to achieve transfers from one point to another in the country as quickly as possible, a key factor for the success of the operation.
Vueling, with its main base at Barcelona Airport, is one of those companies. The airline has collaborated with the ONT since 2013, a period in which it has transported a total of 926 organs in the cabins of its planes during commercial flights. According to company data, this figure makes it the one that has made the most transfers to facilitate transplants in Spain during the last decade.
Last year, the IAG group airline transported 153 organs, a figure that exceeds that of previous years, especially 2020 and 2021, but is still below pre-pandemic levels, when it transported 171 organs in 2019. However, the figures have not stopped growing since the beginning of the agreement between the ONT and Vueling, with only 14 organs transported in 2013 and 31 in 2014.
Although Barcelona is one of the Spanish cities where more transplants are performed, with the leadership of hospitals such as Clínic, Bellvitge and Vall d'Hebron, organs are also transferred from El Prat to other autonomous communities. Vueling currently operates in 27 Spanish cities.