A set of twins have been born onboard a Mongolian Airlines (MIAT) flight from Istanbul, Turkey, to the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar last month. The airline celebrated the event yesterday by giving both children a set of lifetime free flights on the airline.
Twins born onboard flight
According to the Xinhua news agency, on July 10th, a set of twins were born onboard a charted Mongolian Airlines repatriation flight from Turkey. The aircraft returned 260 Mongolian nationals home during the current crisis to reunite with families and loved ones.
The mother was due in two months but went into labor onboard the aircraft. She then gave birth to a set of twin girls.
“The twin baby girls were born two months early, and their mother is now under isolation and medical observation,” Dulmaa Nyamkhuu, head of Mongolia’s National Center for Communicable Diseases, said Friday at a press conference.
In a follow-up communication from the source publication since the event, the agency reports that both the mother and the children are healthy and have returned home.
The airline celebrates
Mongolian Airlines decided to celebrate this rare double event by offering both the children free flights for life. It is unclear if this offer means they can fly every day if they like, or just once a year on their birthday (and perhaps only on their birth plane!).
According to the airline, “this is the first time in the history of Mongolian civil aviation that a woman has given birth on an international flight.”
This isn’t the first time that an airline has offered free flights to babies born onboard:
- In 2017 Spirit Airlines in the US agreed to give a free flight every year to a child who was born on board their aircraft.
- Indian Jet Airways also offered free flights for life for a baby born in 2017 (although they may have some trouble cashing in that deal now)
- Plus, a child born onboard Cebu Pacific received a million air miles as a birthday gift.
We also can’t help but imagine that this sets some sort of precedent, that now many Mongolians will try to give birth onboard aircraft. As the nation has few individuals who fly compared to Europe or the US, it is doubtful to happen again. Especially twins.
Mongolian Airlines is the national carrier of Mongolia. It has six aircraft in its fleet: One Boeing 737-800, a single Boeing 737 MAX (and three pending to be delivered), two Boeing 767-300ERs, and a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on the way. The airline operates regular routes to Beijing, Berlin, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Khanbogd (Mongolia), Moscow, Bangkok, and Seoul. There are also some seasonal routes, but this particular flight from Turkey was a chartered flight by the Mongolian government.
A footnote before we end this happy news, sometimes a child can lay claim to another citizenship if they are born onboard an aircraft. In this case, as they were born to a Mongolian mother onboard a Mongolia Airlines flight, likely they will stay Mongolian.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.