Emirates Skycargo, the world's largest cargo airline, is setting up a vaccine hub in Dubai, the largest dedicated airside facility for COVID-19 vaccines in the world, according to the company.
The hub at the Emirates SkyCentral DWC cargo terminal will allow the air carrier to travel, store and prepare shipments for regional and global delivery of vaccines from manufacturing sites worldwide.
A dedicated rapid response team has also been set up by the cargo airline, which is Emirates' freight division, to coordinate requests from different partners involved in the international vaccine delivery ecosystem. According to Emirates SkyCargo, the response team will streamline the carrier 's response to vaccine requests for transport.
Dubai is well positioned to act as a gateway and distribution hub to the rest of the world for COVID-19 vaccines. It has infrastructure and logistics links and a geographical location that positions markets in an 8-hour flying radius covering more than two-thirds of the world 's population.
Sheikh Al Maktoum further noted that Emirates SkyCargo has managed to place Dubai among the major global pharmaceutical customers over the years through continuous investment in capabilities and processes for the transport of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals. This has made the freight carrier the chosen transit point for pharmaceutical goods for its customers, according to the Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates.
The Emirates SkyCentral DWC, where the hub will be located, has a certified dedicated pharmaceutical storage area of over 4,000 square metres of temperature-controlled GDP (Good Distribution Practices), enabling the future COVID-19 vaccines to be processed and distributed on a large scale. Overall, the facility has an installed capacity that can store around 10 million vials of vaccine at any single point of time at a temperature range of 2-8 degrees Celsius.
In the pharma distribution market, Emirates SkyCargo is not a new player. Since 2016, more than a quarter of a million tonnes of pharmaceutical cargo has been transported by the air cargo carrier, further underlining its ability to successfully distribute vaccines to millions of people worldwide.
The carrier has an all-wide-body fleet of new and reliable aircraft and a network that currently serves more than 130 destinations across six continents. Combined with its strategic centre, this will help position the carrier to transfer vaccine shipments quickly from production sites to the vaccine hub and then to the rest of the globe.