The Ethiopian Airlines on Saturday announced that it has delivered the first Covid-19 vaccine shipment to Africa.
In a statement sent to the Nation, the award winning and largest airline in Africa; said the vaccine delivery flight was made Saturday, February 6, 2021 from Beijing to N’Djamena via Addis Ababa.
“We are glad that we have launched the delivery of our mission-critical service with the distribution of Covid-19 vaccine,”; said Ethiopian Group CEO Tewolde GebreMariam.
“We will be repeating the remarkable and globally recognised success in leading the fast delivery of PPE a few months ago with similar delivery speed; professional handling and maintaining the cold chain during the global vaccine distribution,” he added.
Saturday’s vaccine delivery to the African continent is part of the partnership agreement the Ethiopian Airlines; signed with Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, the logistics arm of China’s Alibaba Group; to launch a cold chain air freight for transporting temperature-controlled medicines.
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.