Hyderabad, Dubai airports unite for indefectible movement of COVID-19 vaccines

NEW DELHI: To address the challenge of moving billions of COVID-19 vaccine doses, Gandhi Mallikarjuna Rao (GMR) Hyderabad International Airport Limited, GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo, and Dubai Airports have joined hands in a first of its kind initiative to construct an exclusive Vaccine Air Freight Corridor called ‘Hyderabad to Dubai global Vaccine Corridor’ (HYDXB-VAXCOR).

As Hyderabad and the nearby regions are the centres for most of the vaccine manufacturers, it is expected that majority of domestically manufactured vaccines will be exported from Hyderabad airport to various parts of the world.

According to a statement by GMR on Monday, January 4, a memorandum of understanding regarding the exclusive HYDXB-VAXCOR was signed by Pradeep Panicker, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), GMR Hyderabad International Airport; Saurabh Kumar, CEO-GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo; and Eugene Barry, Executive Vice President- Commercial, Dubai Airports Corporations, in a virtual ceremony held last week.

This collaboration will release modified and uncomplicated processes and infrastructural support to streamline the journey of COVID-19 vaccine right from the manufacturing unit to the airport and hub logistics to delivery to end-customers, the release said. The statement added that GMR-HYD is extending its services and streamlining processes to meet the unique requirements of handling COVID-19 vaccine. A mobile refrigerated unit for airside transportation has also been launched, till the aircraft, maintaining the cold-chain, which is scalable.