NAS, China Southern Airlines partner to fly PPE from Nairobi to China
China Southern Airlines which services four flights weekly between Kenya and China has moved 72 tonnes of vital PPE.
September 14, 2020: China Southern Airlines which services four flights weekly between Kenya and China has moved 72 tonnes of vital PPE which included 10 million face masks as well as other supplies including face shields, gloves and protective suits to Harbin Province in Northern China.
Network Airline Services (NAS) in Nairobi acted as the Cargo Sales Agent for these shipments.
"At first a challenge to load cargo presented itself, due to a high volume of goods, but through our experience and innovation we were able to load more cargo into the passenger cabin utilising all unoccupied seats," Sarah Wangui, managing director of Network Airline Services in Nairobi.
During the first couple of months of 2020, the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chinese people living in Kenya rallied together to send urgent PPE and medical supplies into China.
A large number of protective items were even donated by the Kenyan government before local stocks ran out and had to be sourced from bordering Uganda and Tanzania.
In July 2020, NAS handled 1.6 tonnes of relief cargo to Misrata, Libya for the airline. At this time, Libyan airspace was restricted due to the on-going war, so no flights were allowed. However, through its Amsterdam office, NAS enabled the airline to fly from Nairobi - Amsterdam - Istanbul and finally connecting on to a barge into Misrata.
NAS offices in Uganda and Tanzania represent flydubai, who operated various repatriation flights where we were able to move perishable cargo on the return flights.
