Ethiopian transports first COVID-19 vaccine shipment to Africa

Ethiopian Airlines has transported the first COVID-19 vaccine shipment from Beijing to N'Djamena.  Image:  Ethiopian Airline

Tewolde GebreMariam, CEO of Ethiopian Airlines said: “We are glad that we have launched the delivery of our mission-critical service with the distribution of much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine. We will be repeating the remarkable and globally recognised 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.”

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 by deploying 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, dedicated cool dollies, dedicated pharma team, lease/handling of Envirotainer & DoKaSCH-TS active containers, real-time temperature monitoring system and fully temperature controlled operation, the Pharma Wing is best suited for handling of pharmaceuticals and all types medical supplies. Additionally, leveraging the naturally air-conditioned weather of its home base Addis Ababa, Ethiopian guarantees safe and seamless cool chain logistics for handling temperature sensitive healthcare products.