Emirates cargo unit boosts vaccine transport capacity

DUBAI: Emirates SkyCargo is expanding its vaccine storage facility at the Dubai International Airport to provide more handling capacity as demand for the jab picks up.
The extended cool room will provide an additional 2,600 square meters of temperature-controlled environment (2-25 degrees Celsius) for the storage and handling of vaccines and other pharmaceuticals.
About 94 pallet positions will be added to the existing infrastructure, which can now hold an additional of 60-90 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Dubai carrier’s cargo unit has played a big part in the transport of vaccines worldwide, having moved over 75 million doses of the vaccine on more than 250 flights to over 60 destinations since late last year.
“Emirates SkyCargo is proud to have flown over 350 tons of COVID-19 vaccines around the world, delivering much needed support to communities that are still heavily impacted by the current wave of the pandemic,” Nabil Sultan, Emirates’ divisional vice president for cargo, said.
He said there will be an increase in demand to transport vaccines to developing nations in the second half of the year.
“Already, we have seen a ramping up of COVID-19 vaccine volumes that were transported over the last few weeks in line with increased manufacturing. We expect to reach the 100 million doses milestone well before the end of this month,” Sultan added.