Transport of COVID-19 vaccines : Airports will provide flexible slots, Air cargo operators to run multiple flights

Major Indian airports will provide flexible slots and separate temperature-controlled zones while air cargo operators would run multiple flights in a short time span to transport COVID-19 vaccines that are expected to become available in India early next year.

The Indian government is in touch with Moderna, Pfizer, Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila over the progress of the clinical trials of each of the vaccine candidates.The CSMIA (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport) in Mumbai is the “largest pharma gateway in the country” and it will provide flexible slot allocation for ad hoc freighter operations for transportation of COVID-19 vaccines.A slot is a date and time at which an aircraft is permitted to depart or arrive at an airport.The CSMIA will provide “round the clock green channel with dedicated truck docks, X-Ray machine, ULD (unit load device) buildup workstation” and key account managers will be deployed for “round the clock monitoring of vaccine operations,”.In this matter, air cargo operator Blue Dart which has six Boeing 757 freighter aircraft in its fleet said that the company’s air capability “has various scalability options including charters as well as variable timing options”.

A senior official of another major air cargo operator in India said the transportation of COVID-19 vaccines for as big as a population as India’s will be a “massive undertaking” and his company is readying to operate “multiple flights in a short time span” whenever the demand arises.Vaccine maker Serum Institute of India’s CEO Adar Poonawalla had on November 19 said at a summit that the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine should be available for healthcare workers and elderly people by around February 2021 and by April for the general public in India.

The CSMIA spokesperson said a dedicated COVID-19 task force will be responsible for advance planning and collaboration with all the stakeholders within the supply chain process to “ensure optimal temperature management, dwell time reduction with prior special permissions from the regulators and lower processing time“.time”. Furthermore, a round the clock customer service cell will be dedicated for COVID-19 vaccine EXIM (export and import) consignments in order to address customer queries, pre-alerts and status updates.