In what is becoming a holiday tradition, New Hampshire-based fractional aircraft provider PlaneSense flew one of its Pilatus PC-12s filled with donated food to Manchester Boston Regional Airport yesterday for the New Hampshire Food Bank. While last year’s contribution totaled 800 pounds, this year saw the company’s charitable effort amass more than 7,000 pounds of food, exceeding the turboprop-single's cargo capacity and requiring the remainder to be delivered by truck.

The flight, piloted by company president and CEO George Antoniadis, was greeted at the airport by Manchester, N.H. Mayor Ted Gatsas and other officials. “It is my great pleasure to be here with the New Hampshire Food Bank for the second year in a row, to accept and thank the PlaneSense team for being so giving during the holiday season,” said Gatsas. “Their donations today will give so many Queen City and New Hampshire residents a wonderful meal this holiday season.”

According to the food bank more than 140,000 state residents require some form of food assistance, and increasing the public’s awareness of that fact was a key goal of the company’s food drive, Antoniadis noted.