Turkish Cargo Carries COVID-19 Vaccines

Ensuring sustainability of a global supply chain by building a bridge across the globe with its flights, Turkish Cargo has started carrying the COVID-19 vaccines. Its strong fleet, wide flight network and special cargo service quality have aided Cargo in continuing its contributions for the sustainability of the global supply chain.

Turkish Cargo has been reducing boundary distances by offering services to 127 countries across the globe. They have carried COVID-19 vaccines—that were manufactured in China—to Brazil covering over an approximate distance of 17,000 kilometres. The vaccines were transported with utmost care, loaded inside seven containers that were equipped with dedicated cooling systems. The flight took off from Beijing and made it to Sao Paulo with a connecting flight at Istanbul. 

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Maintaining its commitment for transporting the COVID-19 vaccines that are either ready or being developed, the Cargo created a global pharmaceutical corridor in over 400 destinations including, Mumbai, Brussels, Istanbul, Singapore, Dubai, Basel, London and Amsterdam. 

Additionally, Turkish Cargo maintains optimal conditions for carrying pharmaceuticals at global standards and owing to this it carried more than 40,000 tons of pharmaceuticals, medical products and medical equipment between January and September. The Cargo—which holds the IATA CEIV pharma certificate—also reported a growth of over 50% for pharmaceutical shipments during the same period. 

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The Cargo service is also equipped to handle the increased demand for transportation of vaccines and pharmaceuticals in temperature controlled cargos. They have commissioned temperature-controlled smart warehouses with an additional area of 1200 square meters along with increasing the capacity for cold chain shipments by 30%. The Turkish Cargo also enhanced its cold chain shipment scale to 25,000 tonnes per month with a capacity to service additional 150 aircraft pallets on an instantaneous basis. 

Not just this but the Cargo is also getting ready to offer even higher standards for pharmaceutical shipments with certified dedicated operation areas that will be available with SmartIST—a new mega facility at the Istanbul Airport. 

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The SmartIST has an annual handling capacity of more than 4 million tonnes and will be equipped with features such as receiver, delivery and operation area for special cargo, temperature-controlled unit devices and an operation area of 2100 sq mts which will be isolated from the other cargo and a web-based temperature and humidity monitoring system. 

Boasting of the world’s widest direct cargo aircraft network, the Turkish Cargo reaches over 300 destinations—out of which 95 are direct—with a global network of 365 aircrafts and aims to become one of the top 5 air cargo brands in 2023.