FedEx Corporation donated a long-haul flight to two giant pandas, 4-and-a-half-year-old Tai Shan and 3-year-old Mei Lan. Tai Shan was born and raised at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington D.C. and Mei Lan was born and raised at Zoo Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia. Both were transported this morning of by FedEx vehicles to Virginia’s Washington Dulles International Airport.
From there, they flew on N850FD, FedEx’s first Boeing 777-FS2 freighter, dubbed Panda Express, for the 14.5 hour nonstop flight to China’s Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport. Arrival is scheduled for late afternoon on February 5.
Tai Shan is destined for the China Conservation and Research Center Wolong Nature Reserve in Sichuan and Mei Lan will go to Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. We hope they had a great trip!
Here’s the flight info from FlightAware.