b'12American Journal of Transportation ajot.comAir C ArgoAir CArgoNEWSNEWSPassenger jets can play integral role in frozen vaccine airliftPassenger jets will be ablethe quantities needed to inocu-totransportcoronavirusvac- late most of the world.cinesattherequiredultra-lowOnepotentialobstaclemay temperatures as long as they arebe that bottlenecks appear elsewhere storedinspeciallymadecon- in the supply chain, Forson said, tainers,accordingtoEuropessince Pfizer has said the box car-biggest cargo-only airline. rying the vaccine will have only No plane, even a purpose- a 10-day lifespan. It can also be built freighter, would otherwiseopened no more than twice for a be able to keep inoculations atmaximum period of one minute theminus-80degreesCelsiusat a time, he added.(minus-112Fahrenheit)speci- Theshortestpartofthe fied by Pfizer Inc. for its shot,lifespan of that vaccine is going 200 breeding pigs departed STL for viracopos International Airport located near Sao Paulo, brazil. accordingtoCargolux Airlinesto be on board our aircraft, and InternationalSAChiefExecu- we are quite used to flying phar-Livestock shipment bound for BraziltiveOfficerRichardForson.maceuticalsaround,theCEO Thatwouldmakeshipmentinsaid. The important thing is the custom-designed boxes the onlylast mile, getting it to the hospi-flies out of STL viable option, he said. tal or clinic where its going to Thecontaineritselfcanbe used.As cargo operations at St. Louis Lambert Inter- positive feedback from the operators of this ship- remainatambienttemperatureThebestsolutionwould national Airport (STL) continue to climb, it hasment and we hope it will be just the beginning. becauseitsprotectedonthebe for the vaccine to be manu-now added livestock as a new source of air cargo. STLisworkingwithmultipleoperatorsinside,hesaidinaLondonfactured in as many locations as Approximately200breedingpigsdepartedthroughout the Midwest to use its Export Inspec- AviationClubwebinar,addingpossible, rather than producing STL for Viracopos International Airport located neartion Facility, approved by the U.S. Departmentthat capacity wont be an issue.billions and flying them around Sao Paulo, Brazil. The pigs left the airport aboard aofAgriculture,asanefficientandaffordableAll the passenger aircraft in thethe world, he said.Boeing 747-400F. option to ship their livestock. More shipmentsworld will be mobilized to trans- Eventhen,storagewillbe We continue to work on establishing STL as anare being discussed for future operations start- port these vaccines, he said. a huge challenge, according to effective and preferred animal embarkation point,ing in early 2021. PfizerandGermanpart- Forson,whoseLuxembourg-saidRhondaHamm-Niebruegge,STLDirector.This comes at a time when air cargo operationsner BioNTech SE delivered thebased company operates a global This was an effort initiated by STL, along withatSTLcontinuetoperformwell.Overall,sincemost promising news yet aboutwarehousing and road-feeder net-our air cargo consultant and the Midwest CargoSeptember 2017, cargo is up more than 20.5 per- apotentialCovid-19vaccinework in addition to its 30-strong Hub Commission nearly seven years ago and wecent. To date, STL has had 128,702,074 pounds ofearlier this week, when a studyfleet of Boeing Co. 747 freighters.are now seeing it pay off. We are encouraged by thecargo come through the airport for the year. showedtheirshotpreventedYou have to have the cool-more than 90% of symptomaticingcapacity,hesaid.Inthe infections in the trial of tens ofWest they can maybe afford to thousands of volunteers. Whileacquire such equipment. If you the product remains in clinicallookat Africa,South America trials, attention is already turn- and other developing countries, ing to how a proven dose can beyouhavetoaskhowtheyre manufactured and transported atgoing to store it.American Air to revive long-distance flights to Latin AmericaAmericanAirlinesGrouptripshavetumbledevenmore. Inc.isresumingmuchofitsTravelers have been discouraged short-distanceservicetoLatinby concerns over new surges of Americaandstartingtobringinfections and changing rules for back longer flights over the nextentering various countries.fewweeks,buildingoffofitsWereallylikewherewe dominance in the region amongareinSouthAmerica,Raja U.S. rivals. said. We think this is an oppor-Delta launches scheduled cargo-only flightsSouth America is the stron- tunity for us to bring out more of gest part of Americans long-haulthatnetworksoonerthanlater, between US and Europe systemamidthecoronavirusgiventheinnatecompetitive pandemic when, admittedly, alladvantages that we have.Delta launched cargo-only flights between thecines, medical supplies and general cargo. ofitisrelativelyweak,ChiefManyshort-distanceflights United State, Europe and India on November 1st,Given the travel constraints within Europe, weRevenue Officer Vasu Raja saidto Latin America and the Carib-to help meet customer demands. are strategically adding cargo capacity in Spain, Ire- at the Aviation Festival Americasbean have returned, as have longer Therearedailycargo-onlyflightsbetweenland and Germany to support overall passenger andconference.ThecarrierservesroutestocitiessuchasBuenos New York-JFK and Madrid that operate using acargo growth, said Shawn Cole, Deltas Vice Presi- everymajorcityintheregionAires,SaoPauloandSantiago Boeing 767-400 aircraft providing customers withdentCargo. There is high demand for pharmaceu- and most of the secondary andfromMiami,aspokeswoman capacity to ship fashion goods to the United Statestical shipments from India because of the COVID-19tertiary cities in terms of popula- for American said. The carrier is ahead of the holiday season. pandemic, and this cargo solution ensures we cantion, he said. beginning to expand such flights Inaddition,thereisathree-timesweeklykeep vital supply chains moving to the US. AmericanisreawakeningfromCharlotte,NorthCarolina, cargo-onlyflightbetweenNewYork-JFKandDelta Cargo launched a cargo charter operationsomeofitsLatinAmericaser- according to Raja.Dublin that is operated by an Airbus A330-300, asin March to provide safe and reliable transportationvice amid a deep slump in long- American will extend a pro-well as cargo-only flights operating between Newof goods around the globe by working primarily withdistanceflyingcausedbythegramforpreflightcoronavirus York-JFK and Atlanta to Mumbai, via Frankfurt,Deltasestablishedworld-leadinglogisticspartners.pandemic.Whiletraveldemandtesting for travelers to Belize in using Airbus A330-200/300 aircraft. These aircraftDelta dispatched idled aircraft on cargo runs to trans- within the U.S. is at about 40%CentralAmericaandGrenada are used to carry essential pharmaceuticals, vac- port millions of pounds of supplies quickly and safely.of last years levels, internationaland St. Lucia in the Caribbean.'