Ethiopian Continues to Transport COVID-19 Vaccines to African Countries
ADDIS ABABA – Ethiopian Airlines said on Thursday it has operated COVID-19 vaccine delivery flights from Mumbai to Addis Ababa and from Beijing to Brazzaville.
On Sunday, Ethiopian transported the first batch of coronavirus vaccines from Mumbai to Addis Ababa.
The airline continued to play its prominent role in the vaccine distribution and transported the vaccines from Beijing to Brazzaville via Addis Ababa on 10 March 2021, the Airlines announced.
“We are glad that we have launched the delivery of our mission-critical service with the distribution of much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine,” said Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, while commenting on the operation of the vaccine delivery flights.
“We will be repeating the remarkable and globally recognized success in leading the fast delivery of PPE few months ago with similar delivery speed, professional handling and maintaining the cool chain during the global vaccine distribution,” the CEO said.
“We have made enough preparations to transport the vaccines across the world,” he added.
Ethiopian Cargo Logistics Services, the cargo unit of Ethiopian Airlines Group, was instrumental in facilitating the flow of medical supplies including PPE across the globe in support of the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the operation, the Airlines deployed its state-of-the-art cargo terminal, which is the largest in Africa with annual capacity of around one million tons and compartmentalized temperature controlled cold storage facilities.
Equipped with different climate chambers ranging between -23OC to 25OC covering an area of 54,000m2, among others, its Pharma Wing is said to best suited for handling of pharmaceuticals and all types medical supplies.
Ethiopian is a major cargo partners of WHO, WFP, donor governments and philanthropists in facilitating the flow of essential medical supplies owing to the massive cargo facility including Pharma Wing, large and dedicated freighters and well manpower.
