In its global efforts to overcome barriers, MAF operates the world’s largest fleet of private aircraft used for the public good.
In 2007, the MAF fleet of 53 aircraft executed 37,821 flights, 2.9 million miles, transported 129,350 passengers, and delivered 11.3 million pounds of cargo—all on 1,700 rough, unimproved dirt and grass airstrips as well as waterways.
More importantly, in the past 12 months, MAF planes saved Christian and humanitarian workers 65,991 days of travel time—or 272.7 work years redeemed for productive Kingdom work!
These flights support Christian workers, evangelists, teachers, medical personnel, as well as relief and development workers. MAF planes haul food, seed, and livestock; transport the sick and injured; deliver doctors, medicine, and relief supplies; and carry the materials for a better life to people who need it most—people others cannot reach.
MAF airplanes are often the only safe and reliable means of transportation for those involved in ministry. In regions without trafficable roads, MAF typically can reduce a missionary’s all-day trek by foot to a mere 20-minute flight.
Every 7 minutes, in some of the most remote places on earth, an MAF aircraft either takes off or lands.
One MAF airplane can haul a half-ton of cargo into a region that would otherwise require a train of pack animals, several guides, and weeks of grueling effort to reach by land.
In 1970, only a quarter of MAF passengers were nationals. Today, they represent the majority. Indigenous evangelists and missionary groups, who are the fruit of earlier missionary efforts, are increasingly seeking and reaching the lost and hurting in their own countries.
Today, nearly 800 Christian and humanitarian organizations depend on Mission Aviation Fellowship to help them accomplish their work.
Where aviation was once the entire MAF ministry, today it is but one of three primary ministry thrusts that also include communications and learning technologies.