Delta Will Ship More Than 3.2 Million Bottles Of Baby Formula To Help Tackle Shortage, Biden Announces

Topline

The Biden Administration on Friday announced Delta Air Lines will fly more than 3.2 million 8-ounce bottles of baby formula from London to the United States in two weeks as a part of the administration’s “Operation Fly Formula” to tackle a shortage that has left parents scrambling to find nourishment for their infants.

Key Facts

Delta will carry more than 212,000 pounds of formula from Kendamil Nutricare—a British manufacturer of nutrition products—from Heathrow Airport to Logan Airport in Boston and Detroit Metro Airport between June 20 and June 24, at no charge, the White House said.

The formula will be available for purchase online and distributed to retailers across the country, according to the Biden Administration.

The shipment is the sixth flight coordinated by the White House to speed up formula deliveries and comes a day after United Airlines shipped 1.6 million bottles of Nestlé and 3.7 million bottles of Kendamil formula to Texas and Virginia to help ease supply chain woes.

Big Number

At least 54 million 8-ounce bottles. That’s how much Kendal has committed to shipping to the U.S. to help ease the formula crisis.

Key Background

The White House has announced a host of steps in recent weeks to try and tackle the baby formula shortage, sparked by supply chain issues and the closure of an Abbott Laboratories facility in Sturgis, Mich., due to alleged ties between formula produced there and fatal bacterial infections. The Department of Agriculture has made more types of formula available under its Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program for low-income women and children, while the White House has invoked the Defense Production Act to reopen Abbott’s facility to restock shelves. Biden launched “Operation Fly Formula” last month to bring in additional shipments of formula from several different companies and countries around the world, including Germany and Australia.

Further Reading

Here’s How The Biden Administration Plans To Tackle The Baby Formula Shortage (Forbes)

Millions more bottles’ worth of formula set to ship into US in June (ABC News)