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Healthcare & Social Workers: Request a Flight for Your Patient

Angel Flight West partners with healthcare professionals and social workers to help patients overcome transportation barriers and access the care they need. If your patient has an upcoming medical appointment and needs assistance traveling, we can help connect them with free air transportation through our network of volunteer pilots.

Start a Patient Flight Request

Healthcare professionals, social workers, and care coordinators can request a flight on behalf of a patient. Use our chatbot below to answer a few quick questions to check your patient’s eligibility and explore options. Click the button below to get started.

Learn More or Request a Presentation

We offer virtual presentations for healthcare workers. Hosted by our outreach team, these sessions are 30 minutes long and cover details about AFW’s services. Request a presentation for your group today.

Vector map showing Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawai’i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Where We Fly

Angel Flight West provides free air transportation within and across 12 Western states: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawai‘i, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Our volunteer pilots typically fly small, private aircraft that provide flexible access to communities of all sizes, often using regional and local airports that may be more convenient than commercial airports. Most missions are 900 miles or fewer, and longer journeys may require multiple flight legs coordinated by our team.

For patients traveling from Alaska or Hawai‘i to the mainland, Angel Flight West also partners with Alaska Airlines to help provide additional transportation options.

Use our chatbot below to answer a few quick questions to check your patient’s eligibility and explore your options. Click the button below to get started.

Frequently Asked Questions About Flying with Angel Flight West

Financial or Compelling Need: Angel Flight West provides flights for those who cannot afford airfare or face physical hardships with other travel options. We also assist passengers with compromised immune systems or those in remote areas lacking commercial transportation. AFW does not require income verification.

Medically Stable: Patients with medical conditions who are ambulatory, medically stable, and can fly in a non-pressurized aircraft are accepted unless that condition would make flying a health risk.

Ambulatory: We are not an air ambulance. Passengers must be able to walk and step onto a plane wing (up to 16″ high) with limited assistance and sit upright with a seat belt fastened. If you have questions about the process, please watch this boarding video.

Need help determining if your patient is eligible for a free flight? Our chatbot can help! Click here to get started.

A passenger’s use of these services is at the sole and exclusive discretion of AFW.

Who Can Request: Flights can be requested by healthcare workers, family members, and patients themselves for non-emergency flights to medical appointments.  Click here to see if your patient qualifies for a free flight.

  • If you are a healthcare professional requesting a flight with Alaska Airlines for the first time, please call our office at 310-390-2958 for assistance. Qualifying patients are eligible for up to two round-trip tickets per calendar year.

Request Your Flight: Submit a request a minimum of a week in advance. We will ask for a medical release from the patient’s healthcare provider after the request is submitted. The patient must let staff know during the request if they plan to bring a companion and if help is needed with ground transportation.

Securing a Pilot: Once all personal and flight details have been finalized, we’ll submit your flight request to our pilots via a secure system. As soon as a pilot has signed up for the mission, we’ll accept their request and assign the mission. It may take a little time to secure a volunteer pilot for the mission, especially if the distance traveled requires multiple legs and multiple volunteer pilots.

The Details: We will send the patient, the healthcare requester (if applicable), and your pilot an email with the itinerary — which includes the pilot’s and passenger’s contact information. The patient should expect to hear from your pilot to discuss all flight-related details. Patients may reach out to their pilot directly if you have any questions, but it may take a little time to coordinate details on their end.

Have a Backup Plan: The flight is likely to take place, however, it is essential that passenger’s have a backup plan or the ability to reschedule the appointment. We cannot guarantee our flights will always happen, and we may need to cancel due to weather, mechanical problems, or the inability to secure a volunteer pilot. In some circumstances, we may be able to provide patients with a backup commercial flight.

After Your Appointment: After the patient’s medical appointment, another Angel Flight West volunteer pilot will make sure they’re safely brought home!

Though we’re best known for linking passengers to valuable medical resources, we also provide transportation for other humanitarian purposes, such as individuals and families escaping domestic violence, disaster relief, therapeutic programs for veterans, and children’s specialty camps.

Compassion Flights: Flights for individuals traveling for compassionate reasons, such as caregiving for an ill family member, or visiting a seriously or terminally ill loved one.

Camp Flights: Flights for children and adults traveling to various camps, including those for burn survivors and children navigating life-altering or life-threatening illnesses.

Flights for Survivors of Domestic Violence: Flights for domestic violence survivors, helping them travel to a safer location.

Flights for Veterans: Flights for veterans traveling to therapeutic programs and other care services.

Blood, Organ, Tissue Transport: Flights to transport blood, blood products, organs and/or tissue to and from hospitals or other agencies.

Natural Disaster Support: After floods, earthquakes, and other disasters, Angel Flight West can deploy multiple aircraft to assist with relocating displaced residents, transporting small rescue cargo and relief supplies, and flying rescue workers and rescue dogs to the affected areas.

Flights for Service Dogs: Angel Flight West partners with service dog and search-and-rescue dog organizations to provide transportation for dogs traveling to begin their training.

Angel Flight West is proud to collaborate with other charitable aviation organizations to help patients reach distant medical care. In some cases, AFW can partner with these organizations to arrange flights to nearby states, such as Texas and New Mexico. Please note that these flights must still be under 900 nautical miles.

If you are requesting a flight for a patient traveling from a Western state to a nearby state outside of our service area, please call our office at (310) 390-2958.

For patients living outside of AFW’s service area, we recommend visiting the Air Care Alliance for a list of additional resources.

Real Stories, Real Impact

Command Pilot Joseph Adashek flying passenger Susanna to care at University of Utah Health.

“My experiences requesting flights from Angel Flight West have been extremely positive. The team is responsive, compassionate, and genuinely committed to helping patients access care. One particularly meaningful experience involved a low-income patient from Nevada who had no family support or financial resources. Without Angel Flight West, he would not have been able to attend his appointment or receive the care he needed.”

– Annabelle B., Nurse at University of Utah Health

Watch AFW Passenger Stephanie’s story of receiving the care she needed at Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah by flying with our incredible volunteer pilots.