Kenya Airways(KQ) has finally been hired by UNICEF in a list of 15 airlines contracted to ferry the COVID-19 vaccine.
Unicef and the Government’s communication points to the health body’s retreat following high pitch lobbying by the Government to get the national carrier into the cargo business. KQ has been struggling to remain in the skies following low passenger numbers on most of its routes as pandemic hits air travel.
The Ministry of Transport had raised questioned about why the national carrier was missing out on the vaccine deal.
“KQ is now among the carriers in Unicef humanitarian airfreight initiative and as such would be eligible to carry Covax vaccines and other essential supplies to different countries and we have already signed the MoU,” reads the communication.
KQ converts passenger planes to freight
KQ, which had recently converted its Boeing 787 passenger planes into freighters, was eyeing the vaccine business’s share.
The cargo business is critical to KQ as it expands its cargo planes to other destinations to cater for the low passenger numbers.
The airline last year launched a modern pharma cargo facility at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), targeting the vaccine distribution business.
The inclusion of KQ in the Unicef list brings the number of African airlines participating in the programme to three.
Only Ethiopian Airline and Astral Aviation- a Nairobi-based freighter- had been put in the initial list in Africa.
Other airlines taking part in this initiative include AirBridgeCargo, Air France/KLM, Emirates SkyCargo, Brussels Airlines, Cargolux, Cathay Pacific, Etihad Airways, IAG Cargo, Korean Air, Lufthansa Cargo, Qatar Airways, Saudia, Singapore Airlines and United Airlines.
The selected carriers are expected to transport 600 million doses of the vaccine between March and December.
These are the free vaccines that the World Health Organisation is supplying to Africa to cover about 20 per cent of the continent’s population.
Unicef and Gavii are paying for the vaccines for Africa, with the former overseeing procurement and logistics.
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