First Covid vaccine flights push general air cargo off booked flights (December 2020)

Prime Freight’s summary of a December 2020 report by The Loadstar. Read the original for the full story.

In December 2020, as the first Covid-19 vaccine shipments began, air freight forwarders reported that their cargo was being offloaded from booked flights.

A European forwarder told The Loadstar that Singapore Airlines had been loading vaccines in Amsterdam for several days and his shipments kept getting bumped. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, approved in the UK, was made in Belgium and at several US sites and had to be kept at about −70°C, though IATA said its self-contained packaging made it easier to carry than vaccines needing standard refrigeration. Distribution would be complex, with several Chinese vaccines as well as the Moderna, AstraZeneca and Sputnik V options in the pipeline.

Turkish Airlines Cargo and AirBridgeCargo were already flying Chinese vaccines, and Cainiao was working with Ethiopian Airlines on temperature-controlled medicines to Africa. Other priority cargo competed for space too: large volumes of Covid test kits were flying from Korea to Europe, and car makers were shifting shipments to air because ocean space was full into January, driving up rates westbound from Korea.

What it meant for shippers

When high-priority cargo such as vaccines takes capacity, general cargo is the first to be offloaded. Time-sensitive airfreight at the time needed confirmed allocations, backup routings and realistic delivery windows.