The Airports Authority of India (AAI) is about to finalize an agreement with the Indian Air Force to receive 2.5 acres of land adjacent to the Pune airport, to be used for the transportation of vaccines from nearby facilities. from the vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India.
“The transfer of the land, which is currently owned by the IAF, to Pune Airport has been a requirement of the AAI for a long time. They have asked for a land exchange and AAI has finalized the plan for it, ”said a senior government official.
“The airport management is also constantly in discussions with the Serum Institute to understand the requirements, because a significant amount of cargo is expected to leave Pune,” the official said.
The Pune-based serum, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines by number of doses, was licensed by Oxford-AstraZeneca to test, manufacture and distribute its novel coronavirus vaccine in India.
As the country approaches the implementation of its Covid-19 vaccination program, airports and logistics players are working to ensure that it happens smoothly, expanding cold chain facilities and establishing computerized transport spaces. for more efficient redistribution from airports. Officials said they believed vaccination could begin next month.
While Pune will be one of the domestically manufactured vaccine distribution centers, most of the vaccine shipment will be imported through major international airports including Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. Delhi, the largest airport in the country, has launched the “Sanjivani Project” to equip cargo terminals with special cooling chambers. The airport has the capacity to handle 54 lakh vials of the vaccine per day with two full rotations.
“Temperature controlled cargo facilities have the capacity to handle more than 1.5 lakh tonnes of cargo per year. These facilities have state-of-the-art temperature control zones with separate cold rooms ranging from 25 degrees C to minus 20 degrees C, ”said a Delhi airport spokesman.
At the airport cargo terminals, dedicated gates have been allocated for the rapid movement of vehicles in and out of the airport. The airport has also implemented a truck space management system at its cargo terminals, and cargo operators can pre-book the arrival of trucks at the terminal.
On the air side, the airport has been equipped with “cold carts”, which are container systems used in air cargo for temperature-sensitive goods. They are mainly used to transport goods from the plane to the cargo terminal.
Preparations at airports in India are in line with those that have been made at global air transport hubs, such as Singapore, Dubai, Doha and Shenzhen airports, some of which have already started receiving vaccine shipments.
Turkish ground handling company Çelebi, which operates a cargo terminal at Delhi airport, has created a separate lane for the movement of vaccine shipments in the export and import warehouse, and dedicated delivery and acceptance gates for immediate handling. “Customers, both airlines and freight forwarders, are being sensitized to send us their advance alerts and planning, to allow us to plan and accelerate movements accordingly,” Murali Ramachandran, CEO-India, Çelebi Aviation, told The Indian Express.
Airport and cargo operators are also preparing for ad hoc cargo arrivals.
“Çelebi is working closely with existing airline operators to understand their specific requirements and to attract a large number of non-scheduled operators to bring ad hoc freighters with the Covid-19 vaccine in the near future,” Ramachandran said.
A spokesperson for Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport said the airport will offer flexible slot management for ad hoc charter operations. Mumbai is the gateway to the largest airport in the country for the export and import movement of pharmaceuticals.
“The existing infrastructure at CSMIA enables the airport to offer continuous temperature controlled movement and processing of pharmaceuticals through the airport, an element that would be vital for the storage and transportation of the Covid-19 vaccine,” the spokesperson said.
The cold chain infrastructure is also being improved at smaller airports. “If the vaccines come from abroad, they will mainly reach international airports from where they will be redistributed to other smaller places, state capitals, etc. Whatever the cold chain infrastructure, we are improving it,” said the president of AAI , Arvind Singh. said.
Hyderabad airport will be key to the distribution of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which is being produced in India by Hyderabad-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. This airport also processes a large volume of pharmaceutical cargo from India given its proximity to several manufacturing facilities. The airport has a dedicated Pharmaceutical Zone with temperature controlled cargo facilities requiring temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius.
The airport has also ensured that the exposure time of cargo on ramps is minimized, with cargo parking stalls located just 50 meters from the terminal.
Airlines, both global and Indian, are also preparing to transport the vaccines. SpiceJet has partnered with Hyderabad Airport and logistics companies Om Logistics and Snowman Logistics to transport vaccines from one end to the other. Globally, cargo units from airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Emirates have already started transporting Covid-19 vaccines. On December 20, Singapore Airlines delivered the first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to Singapore aboard one of its Boeing 747-400 freighters.
However, stakeholders have pointed to some potential issues that will need to be resolved before the vaccination campaign in India begins. Ramachandran de Çelebi, for example, noted the need for uniform government guidelines on the vaccine; Immediate export and import customs clearance through the green channel for vaccines; and short notice landing permits for ad hoc freighter operators.
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