Qatar Airways Cargo carries over 70k tonnes of medical supplies, relief aid
Qatar Airways has transported over 70,000 tonnes of medical equipment and relief aid since mid-February.
April 22, 2020: Qatar Airways has transported over 70,000 tonnes of medical equipment and relief aid since mid-February. The carrier even carried over one million people home, operating a mix of scheduled and charter services plus extra sectors.
With global air freight capacity declining, Qatar Airways Cargo continues to operate a significant cargo schedule with almost 100 flights per day. During the past month, it has worked closely with governments and NGOs to transport medical and aid supplies to impacted regions around the world on both scheduled and charter services, the equivalent of roughly 500 fully loaded B777 freighters. The group’s cargo division is also utilising passenger aircraft to carry freight-only to destinations in China, Europe, India, and the Middle East.
In the past several weeks, the airline has helped repatriate over 45,000 passengers back home to France, 70,000 home to Germany and over 100,000 customers back to the United Kingdom. Working with governments and group travel companies around the world, the airline operated over 90 charters and extra sector flights taking home over 26,000 stranded travellers.
The demand to help get stranded travellers home has also seen Qatar Airways operate flights to new destinations such as Brisbane, Christchurch and Toronto. The national carrier continues to operate approximately 60 scheduled flights a day to around 40 destinations to repatriate stranded citizens.
Qatar Airways group chief executive Akbar Al Baker said, “The entire team at Qatar Airways has worked incredibly hard to take people home over the past few weeks. We have built a strong level of trust with our passengers, governments, travel trade and cargo businesses as a reliable partner when we were needed the most and we continue to offer a schedule where possible and allowed by governments."
In addition, Qatar Airways’ aircraft feature the most advanced air filtration systems, equipped with industrial-size HEPA filters that remove 99.97 percent of viral and bacterial contaminants from re-circulated air, providing the most effective protection against infection.
