Cargo flights carry medical supplies to eastern and southern parts of the country; private airlines also carry out critical supply operations
New Delhi: The Cargo flights were operated to carry medical supplies to Southern, eastern and north eastern regions on 30th March 2020. Details are as below:
Lifeline 1- Air India flight A320 on its route Mumbai-New Delhi-Bengaluru-Mumbai, carried HLL consignment of 6593 kg and Nagaland ventilator masks, consignments of Kerala and Karnataka, consignment of Bipaps for Meghalaya and consignment of Ministry of Textiles for Coimbatore.
Lifelines 2- IAF flight from Hindon- Dimapur- Imphal-Guwahati carried consignments of HLL and ICMR kits for Shillong.
Private airlines such as Indigo, Spicejet and Blue Dart are also operating flights on commercial basis.
MoCA group was formed with important Stakeholders. Hub & spoke lifeline services were started. Cargo Hubs have been created at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Kolkata. Hubs feed to spokes at Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Agartala, Aizwal, Imphal, Coimbatore, Thiruvananthapuram.
| S.
No. |
Date | Air India | Alliance | IAF | Indigo | SpiceJet | Total flights operated |
| 1 | 26.3.2020 | 02 | – | – | – | 02 | 04 |
| 2 | 27.3.2020 | 04 | 09 | – | – | – | 13 |
| 3 | 28.3.2020 | 04 | 08 | – | 06 | – | 18 |
| 4 | 29.3.2020
|
04 * | 10 * | 06 * | — | – | 20 |
| Total Flights | 14 | 27 | 06 | 06 | 02 | 55 |
* Air India and IAF collaborated for Ladakh.
Total cargo load carried from 26th to 29th March 2020 was 10 Tonnes. The cargo essentially covered COVID-19 related reagents, enzymes, medical equipment, testing kits & PPE, masks, gloves & other accessories of HLL & cargo requisitioned by State/UT Governments.
A dedicated Medical Air Cargo related website has been launched and is functional. This website will be fully functional from 1st April, 2020. The link is available on the MoCA website (www.civilaviation.gov.in).
The information sharing, answering of queries and the work at ground is going on round the clock for delivering the supplies to the destinations in a timely manner so that the efforts to fight the COVID 19 are multiplied and supplemented.
