The ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital - the training eye hospital housed within a DC-10 airplane - will be visiting Abu Dhabi in conjunction with the 18th World Routes Development Forum, an aviation conference in late September.


As Routes charity of choice, ORBIS will kindly be hosted by the Abu Dhabi Airports Company and will be hosting tours of the aircraft. Visitors from the United Arab Emirates and the conference will be able to see firsthand where volunteer surgeons and local doctors perform surgery shown to trainees in a 48 seat classroom at the front of the aircraft - empowering eye-care teams across developing countries to treat their own communities. They will tour the aircraft and see the hospital facilities.

ORBIS’s medical staff and crew will be on hand to answer any questions, hoping to capture the interest of Abu Dhabi; raising awareness of the 39 million people blind in the world and garnering support for the next generation Flying Eye Hospital, a cargo plane donated by logistics company FedEx to be converted for use in 2013.

Phil Callow, CEO of UBM Aviation has kick started the process for the new and improved Flying Eye Hospital with a donation of £10,000 from UBM Aviation. This generous donation is leading the way for other Routes delegates to get involved and contribute to this worthwhile cause.

The new Flying Eye Hospital will take over the role of teaching eye care teams in developing countries and it is hoped that we will include youth-development programmes for students from the GCC region, offering them the opportunity to share in the ORBIS experience and its sight saving work worldwide.

ORBIS welcomes guests onboard the aircraft. Please click the online registration link below if you would like to join the Goodwill Tour when the plane is in Abu Dhabi.

>Visit the Routes Online event page