Airlines badly affected by COVID-19 are preparing for key roles in the mass vaccine airlift hoping to boost the sector and also to trim their pandemic-triggered losses.
Global airline companies will be the workhorses to eradicate the coronavirus by hauling billions of vaccines.
According to the World Health Organization vaccines director Kate O’Brien, “Developing vaccines in record time was the easy part or the equivalent of building base camp at Everest.”
“The delivery of these vaccines, the confidence in communities, the acceptance of vaccines, and ensuring that people are in fact immunized with the right number of doses is what it’s going to take to scale the peak,” she added.
Some large Global airlines with the likes of Lufthansa, Air France-KLM, and Cathay Pacific along with freighter specialists like UPS, FedEx, and DHL are in talks with the vaccine manufacturers.
In addition to these, Gulf carriers Qatar Airways and Emirates as well as Turkish Airlines, all hampered by their long-haul travel collapse, can utilize their vast connecting hubs.
Regarding this, Cathay commercial chief Ronald Lam told analysts, “there will be a positive impact either directly through vaccine transportation or the surge in overall cargo demand.”
IATA has estimated flying one dose to every human would fill 8,000 Boeing 747s. However, many require two shots of the vaccine.
United Airlines have already started to transport vaccines from Europe to their distribution hubs across the United States. Similarly, Turkish Airlines also has begun transporting China’s Sinovac vaccine to Brazil.
