The Internation Air Transport Association (IATA) is in talks with the government and has been advising them on the plan to associate with the industry stakeholders for creating supply chains, which are capable of dispensing the Covid-19 vaccine when it is available in the future. IATA has also warned of “potentially severe” capacity constraints in terms of vaccine air-transportation and urges the government to start planning so that arrangements, borders, and security are prepared for the challenging task.
Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO of IATA, in a release, mentioned how over the years, air cargo played a vital role in the distribution of vaccines while taking care of both global time and temperature-sensitive distribution systems at read more webku.in.
However, the operation is expected to be more complicated for a potential coronavirus vaccine as it still has major unknown variables regarding the factors such as the number of doses, temperatures, sensitiveness, locations of manufactures, etc. According to IATA, with these challenges, they expect that a vast scale of activities will be needed, as well as cold chain facilities and delivery around the world.
As far as the calculations of IATA go, they are already talking about 8,000,747 cargo aircraft for dispensing vaccines to 7.8 billion world population, excluding the developed nations with local capabilities of manufacturing the vaccine.
De Juniac has also mentioned that to safely deliver the vaccine will be a challenging mission for the global air industry and without a prior careful planning it won’t be possible and that it is already time to start planning.
These challenges, moreover, comes with other complications as the cargo sector is sinking either due to travel restrictions or as a result of people not comfortable enough to board flights yet, during the pandemic. As a result, a huge number of passenger airplanes are grounded that usually are responsible for carrying an average of 60% of airfreight as belly cargo.
IATA has listed some of the additional challenges, which include improving cargo security for guarding vaccine shipments, relieve border restrictions.
Seth Berkley, who is the CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in a release said that complex logistical and programmatic obstacles will be required to successfully deliver the vaccine to the world population. He also mentioned that Vaccine Alliance is looking forward to working in association with the government, vaccine manufactures, logistical partners so that the vaccine is accessible and affordable for the billions of population around the world.
How airfreight specialists are getting prepared?
Meanwhile, the specialist of DHL Global Forwarding has announced a series of technology enhancement services. Patricia Cole, the Global Head of the temperature management, mentioned in a release that, that they are working in association with their Life Science and Healthcare customers to provide them with innovative technologies to aid their logistical requirements. She also mentioned that due to unexpected challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, their company has been prompted to accelerate the roll-out of these innovations to aid the customers.
Kuehne + Nagel International AG, which is a global transport and logistics company, recently announced investments in their global pharmaceutical and healthcare network, mentioning new healthcare hubs in Brussels, Belgium, Johannesburg.
Yngve Ruud, who is a member of the management board of Kuehne + Nagel International AG, said that the new pharma and healthcare products are more temperature-sensitive and require new storage and transportation conditions. While such convenience and facilities are always available globally, the customers can rely on Kuehne + Nagel International AG to handle all those challenges and the new hubs in Brussels and Johannesburg will handle that.
