Airline Mission of the Century: Transport Vaccines to Billions

Airlines will transport billions of vials of the COVID-19 vaccine to all corners of the world.

In refrigerated warehouses on the outskirts of Frankfurt Airport, Deutsche Lufthansa AG is preparing its depleted fleet for the mammoth task of airlifting millions of doses of the vaccines destined to end the global pandemic.

Lufthansa, one of the world’s largest freight carriers, began planning in April in anticipation of the opportunities that Pfizer Inc. to Moderna Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc are developing in record time. A 20-member task force is working to devise how to put more crucial payload on the airline’s 15 Boeing Co 777 and MD-11 freighters, along with hold space on a vast passenger fleet now flying at just 25. % of its capacity.

“The question is how do we scale it up,” said Thorsten Braun, who leads Lufthansa’s part of the global effort.

Abandoned by a Covid-19 outbreak that decimated passenger demand, airlines will be the workhorses of the attempt to eradicate it, transporting billions of vials to every corner of the world. It’s an unprecedented task, made more difficult by the declining status of carriers after eliminating jobs, routes, and planes to survive a crisis that has reduced air traffic globally by an estimated 61% this year.

“This will be the largest and most complex logistics exercise in history,” said Alexandre de Juniac, executive director of the International Air Transport Association, the industry’s leading lobby. “The world is counting on us.”

IATA estimates that the equivalent of 8,000 loads will be needed on a 110-ton capacity Boeing 747 freighter for the airlift, which will take two years to deliver some 14 billion doses, or nearly two for every man, woman and child on Earth. . It’s a difficult task, given that roughly a third of the world’s passenger fleet is still in storage, according to Cirium data.

Katherine O’Brien, head of immunization for the World Health Organization, compares the task of distributing vaccines after a months-long development sprint to the summit of Mount Everest after arriving at base camp.

“The climb to the top is really about delivering the vaccines,” he said Nov. 16.

Here are some of the biggest challenges along the way:

Loading capacity

There are around 2,000 dedicated freighters in use, carrying roughly half of all goods carried by air. The rest usually go to the belly of the 22,000 regular airliners in the world.

While the freighters are full, air cargo volume has plummeted this year because much of the cargo capacity is idle. Airlines have recruited about 2,500 airliners to perform cargo-only functions, but the job of distributing the vaccine would be easier if fleets flew at regular frequencies to their usual destinations.

At least in the beginning, space will be limited. The massive venture is expected to start at a peak time for freight carriers, just as the online Christmas shopping frenzy, fueled this year by Covid-19, reaches its zenith.

Pfizer plans to ship 1.3 billion doses of its vaccine by the end of next year, and Moderna will produce about 500 million. AstraZeneca has a manufacturing capacity of 2 billion doses, half of those destined for low- and middle-income countries.

“What we have to do is very quickly help the world to its feet,” said Dennis Lister, vice president of cargo for Emirates, the world’s largest long-haul carrier. “Part of that is making sure we get vaccines on planes to the people who need them, so people can fly again.”

To allow more passenger jets to return to service, governments should open up travel, says Glyn Hughes, IATA’s global cargo chief, with a familiar industry refrain.

Deep freeze

The Pfizer-BioNTech SE vaccine adds an extra layer of difficulty. It must be transported at minus 70 degrees Celsius, colder than winter in Antarctica, and the companies plan to use thermal sensors with GPS to track the location and temperature of each vaccine shipment.

Upon arrival, the vaccine can be stored in ultra-low temperature freezers (which are commercially available and can extend the shelf life of the vaccine up to six months), or in a refrigerator in a hospital for five days at 2 to 8 degrees. Celsius, or in a special Pfizer thermal charger, in which the doses will arrive. It can be used as a temporary storage unit by filling with dry ice for up to 15 days. Once thawed, the vials cannot be refrozen.

The choreography will be delicate, with controls from the factory to the clinic and all points in between. Virtually no aircraft is capable of keeping items this cold. Instead, airlines will rely on specialized containers from Pfizer to cool the drug.

United Airlines Holdings Inc. has begun flights to prepare Pfizer’s vaccine for distribution if it receives regulatory approval, a person familiar with the matter said. The drug company and airline declined to comment on the flights, which were previously reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Delta Air Lines Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. are among other airlines that said they are prepared to handle shipments of the Pfizer drug. American has temperature-controlled containers and shipments prepackaged with cold packs or dry ice.

Delta recently approved the use of Opticooler RAP climate control containers from DoKaSch GmbH. It also increased the allowable levels of dry ice, which is considered a “dangerous good,” according to IATA, meaning that only about 50% of warehouse space can normally be filled with vaccine shipments packaged in this way.

“While distribution needs continue to evolve, a team approach will ensure that there will be sufficient air cargo capacity to handle demand,” Vittal Shetty, Delta’s director of innovation and delivery-airport and cargo excellence.

United began operating charter flights on Friday to prepare doses of Pfizer’s vaccine for rapid distribution, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cited people familiar with the matter.

Storage

Despite the obstacles, a well-established global pharmaceutical distribution network should accelerate the dose flow. Cities ranging from Miami, Dallas, and London to Liege in Belgium, Dubai, Mumbai, Singapore, and Incheon in Seoul have well-established freezing capabilities.

United Parcel Service Inc. has built facilities in Louisville, Kentucky and in the Netherlands with a total of 600 freezers that can each hold 48,000 vials of vaccine at temperatures as low as minus 80 degrees Celsius.

FedEx Corp. has added freezers and refrigerated trucks to its already extensive cold chain network, and Richard Smith, who is leading the effort at the vaccine distribution company, has pledged to free up as much air and ground capacity as needed.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)