Turkey’s flag carrier ready for vaccine delivery race

The aviation industry, plagued by the novel coronavirus pandemic, is ready to help in delivering a potential COVID-19 vaccine across the globe.

Experts calculate that the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine, as well as its global distribution and logistics, will be a challenging process, with 15,000 flights and 15 million cooler boxes needed to transport every 10 billion doses.

Commenting on the issue, İlker Ayci, the chairman of Turkish Airlines, emphasized that the company would undertake an important task when the vaccines get ready for distribution.

"As the airline that flies to the most countries in the world with 127 destinations, we have the equipment to provide all the storage and transportation conditions that the vaccine will need in our operation centers in Istanbul," he said on Nov. 26. 

"As a recent example of this, we've transported vaccines from China to Brazil," he added.

He also said Turkish Airlines took on an important responsibility to ensure that the global food, medicine and medical product chain was not disrupted during the pandemic.

"Our successful air cargo brand, Turkish Cargo, has created an international air bridge with its experience, qualifications and flight network.

"We also used our wide-body passenger planes on our cargo flights to meet the demand."
Last month, Turkish Cargo added six new locations to its direct cargo transportation destination list, bringing the total number to 95.

It has added London, Bucharest, Bangkok, Singapore, Beirut and Lahore to its growing list of destinations. With the newly added destinations, Turkish Cargo now has 31 direct flights to Europe, 22 to the Middle East and 16 to the Far East.

Turkish Cargo has become the fastest-growing...