Dubai Airports and GMR-Hyderabad form logistics corridor for distribution of Covid-19 vaccines

Dubai Airports, operator of Dubai International (DXB) and Dubai World Central (DWC), and GMR Hyderabad (GMR-HYD) have partnered to create a Covid-19 vaccine distribution corridor.

Dubai Airports is home to 88 global airlines including local carrier Emirates, 12 international and 400 local and regional freight forwarders and has interlinked cargo facilities at DXB and DWC. The HYD-DXB vaccine corridor connects major vaccine manufacturers in India with markets around the world via Dubai’s cargo hub, and will provide capacity to handle up to 300 tonnes of vaccines per day.

This partnership draws on Hyderabad’s strengths as an emerging vaccine capital with five major vaccine producers in its vicinity, and on Dubai’s prowess of offering aviation and logistics infrastructure, geocentric location and a global network to deliver vaccines to cities across Europe, Africa, the Americas and the Middle East.

“A major surge in demand for the efficient, safe and reliable global distribution of high volumes of Covid-19 vaccines is expected in the coming months and as the world’s preeminent hub of choice, we wanted to be ready to respond to and accommodate that demand,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.

“Our partnership with GMR-Hyderabad is timed perfectly just as the global race to develop the vaccines enters the final stage. This corridor is the result of our proactive strategy to be ready with innovative, collaborative and agile shipping solutions for the industry,” said

SGK Kishore, executive director – south and chief innovation officer, GMR Airports, said, “As the world embarks on an unprecedented vaccination drive to combat Covid-19, our collaboration with Dubai Airports in the form of an exclusive vaccine air freight corridor – HYDXB-VAXCOR will play a key role in enabling seamless, safe and efficient shipment of Covid-19 vaccines to and from Hyderabad, the pharma capital of South Asia.”

“Hyderabad is an important station for us in terms of pharma transportation and is part of our international Pharma Corridors initiative for enhanced cool chain protection for pharmaceuticals,” said Nabil Sultan, Emirates divisional senior vice president, Cargo. “During the Covid-19 pandemic, we have continued to transport important volumes of temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical cargo from Hyderabad and the region.

“Together with our charter capability, we are well positioned to transport the Covid-19 vaccines from Hyderabad to our hub in Dubai where we have extensive EU GDP certified infrastructure for pharma, including a dedicated airside hub to store and distribute Covid-19 vaccines before transporting them onwards to the rest of the world including emerging markets.”