Dubai and Indian city of Hyderabad airports linked as logistics corridor for COVID-19 vaccine distribution

Dubai's airports, Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC), have joined forces with India's GMR Hyderabad Airport (GMR-HYD) to create a vaccine distribution corridor for COVID-19.

The vaccine corridor will provide capacity to mobilise up to 300 tonnes of vaccine per day. Home to 88 global airlines, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE) flagship airline, Emirates, and to 12 international and 400 local and regional freight forwarders, Dubai's airports are ready for the task.

The announcement comes after months of preparations by the two entities to design and create a comprehensive logistics solution. The HYD-DXB vaccine corridor will connect India's leading vaccine manufacturers with markets around the world through the state-of-the-art cargo hub in Dubai.

"Demand for the efficient, safe and reliable global distribution of large volumes of COVID-19 vaccines is expected to increase dramatically in the coming months and as the world's largest centre of choice, we wanted to be ready to respond and meet that demand. Our partnership with GMR-Hyberabad is perfectly synchronised just as the global race to develop vaccines enters the final stage. This corridor is the result of our proactive strategy to be ready with innovative, collaborative and agile delivery solutions for the industry," said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.

GMR's Director of Innovation welcomed the fact that "as the world embarks on an unprecedented vaccination campaign to combat COVID-19" its collaboration with Dubai's airports "in the form of an exclusive air transport corridor for vaccines" will play "a key role in enabling the smooth, safe and efficient shipment of vaccines to and from Hyderabad", the pharmaceutical capital of South Asia. 

Gary Chapman, President of dnata, which is the service provider for Dubai's airports and also part of the collaboration, said he was excited "to join forces with Dubai and Hyderabad airports to ensure the safe and efficient transport of the COVID-19 vaccine throughout the region and beyond. He also highlighted the significant investment in state-of-the-art facilities and technologies to improve their pharmaceutical handling capabilities. "Our advanced infrastructure allows us to provide the highest level of service and safety for our partners and their customers in this unique project," said Chapman.

The project will also be supported by Emirates SkyCargo, the cargo division of the company of the same name, to facilitate the rapid and safe transport of vaccines from the Indian city to Dubai and from there to other countries. "Emirates SkyCargo provides strong flight connectivity to Hyderabad with more than ten flights per week in our Boeing 777 wide-body aircraft," said Nabil Sultan, senior vice president of the company's cargo division.

The UAE is thus continuing its commitment to the fight against the pandemic, just weeks after announcing that the Abu Dhabi Department of Health would lead a public-private partnership, the Hope Consortium, created to ensure the proper distribution of the vaccine globally.