Emirates delivers 50 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines

dynamic throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, responding quickly to maintain international connectivity for essential goods across the world. The carrier was one of the first in the world to deploy passenger aircraft for cargo only flights in order to transport PPE, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals and food. Over one year, Emirates SkyCargo had operated more than 27,800 flights and transported over 100,000 tonnes of essential commodities.

As early as October 2020, Emirates SkyCargo set up an EU GDP certified dedicated airside hub for distribution of COVID-19 vaccines at its hub in Dubai. With its sophisticated infrastructure and extensive storage capacity, Emirates SkyCargo positioned itself to fly in large quantities of COVID-19 vaccines from manufacturing locations, store the vaccines in Dubai and then regularly replenish vaccine supplies to developing nations with limited cold chain infrastructure through its cargo flights.

In January 2021, Emirates SkyCargo joined hands with leading Dubai-based entities, DP World, International Humanitarian City and Dubai Airports to form the Dubai Vaccine Logistics Alliance to harness the strategic strengths of Dubai as a major global distribution hub for COVID-19 vaccines. In February 2021, Emirates SkyCargo signed an MoU with UNICEF to prioritise transportation of COVID-19 vaccines in support of the COVAX facility which is aimed at equitable global distribution of vaccines.

With its fleet of modern and efficient all wide-body aircraft and a network that currently spans more than 130 destinations across six continents, combined with the strategic geographic location of its state of the art GDP certified Dubai hub, Emirates SkyCargo is a key global player in the secure and rapid global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.