Four-million face masks arrived in the UK on Saturday (May 23rd) onboard an aircraft bearing the slogan "Protect Our NHS."

The Airbus A340 arrived at 8 am local time in Bournemouth Airport after an 11-hour flight from Tianjin in China.

The passenger aircraft owned by European Aviation Group was converted for cargo deliveries amid the ongoing pandemic.

"Yet another successful PPE delivery to the UK," said Paul Stoddart from the European Aviation Group.

"The Airbus A340, owned by European Aviation Group, arrived at 08:00AM on the 23rd May at Bournemouth Airport after an 11-hour flight from Tianjin loaded with 4 million masks.

European Aviation Group’s Chairman, Paul Stoddart, said: "It was fantastic to see our new aircraft, registration appropriately 9H-NHS, arrive back as the first cargo flight without the seats with pure cargo back into Bournemouth with millions of masks onboard. Yet another successful PPE delivery to the UK."

The aircraft was the first in European Aviation Group's fleet to be converted from passenger to cargo for this bespoke type of operation. This is the sixth flight in total to return to Bournemouth Airport carrying PPE, and the fourth one from China. There are further flights over the next few weeks transporting medical supplies back into the UK, and there will be up to four a week in the near future."