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Total of 16 airlines have been chosen by UNICEF for Humanitarian Airfreight Initiative. These top of the line carriers were chosen on basis of their efficient supply chains and their individual initiatives to fight the virus since the outbreak. With aim of supplying the vaccines across international borders, including less prosperous nations, UN has established a Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access Facility (COVAX). With many years of experience in handing temperature controlled pharma, #AFKLMP cargo team showed confidence in the initiative. Airlines like #Astral (experienced in African sector) and #Etihad (member at Hope Consortium) shared the same sentiment as in the previous few months, each of the carriers were seen participating proactively towards the cause. #AirCargo #FreightForwarding #Covid19 #CovidVaccines #SupplyChain 
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After deciding to convert 2 passenger aircrafts into freighters early this year, Air Canada displays ambition in converting total of 7 of aircrafts (B767) into freighters. Although it is unlikely that all aircrafts will be up and running by the end of 2022, the announcement does point towards a brighter future for cargo industry. The yoy increase in revenue was noted to be a whopping 53%, valuing around CAD286 million. But that is not all. The carrier is also planning to step into e-commerce sector with a vision of delivering top-notch service to online retailers.  After chasing the dream of becoming world’s top cargo carrier, Qatar Airways had been simultaneously developing modes of digitalising their cargo booking. Good news for freight forwards is that the Doha-headquartered airlines is planning to provide real-time pricing, capacity and ebooking that will help the freight forwarders tremendously. To get a head start, the airlines is also planning to surprise the forwarders with a scheme for the first 20,000 shipments. The airlines strongly believes in this development because they noticed that forwarders were looking for a quick access to make the booking and were no stranger to digital platforms.   Some airlines started off by keeping boxes on the seats of their passenger aircrafts to completely replacing the seats with only cargo - calling it ‘Cabin Cargo’. Although it started with Chinese airlines to transport medical items locally, soon the idea was adopted by many other airlines as the demand for PPE kits increased throughout the world. Call it ‘creativity’ or ‘need of the hour’, removing seats did allow 25% more cargo for transportation. Some of these airlines were China Eastern Airlines with 14 A330s, Lufthansa with 10 A330s (which were restored back to normal post May) and Emirates with 10 B777-300ERs.
Around June 2020, almost 100 aircrafts had this reconfiguration with widebody aircrafts contributing the most. After launching a pharma service back in December 2020, #SpiceJet has now signing an MoU with #SVPI airport in Ahmedabad that will enable the carrier to use cold storage that is required for handing of vaccines. As a part of the agreement, The Adani Group in Ahmedabad will handle the acceptance, warehousing, provide temperature-controlled facilities along with plug points and maintenance of the cold chain from acceptance to the airside and vice versa - ensuring smooth handling of vaccines. The airlines have also been actively partnering with several international airports and indian freight forwarders to get the vax in every corner of the nation. #SpiceJet #SpiceXpress #AdaniGroup  |
