Coronavirus crisis: Delhi International Airport handled 100 COVID-19 relief flights last month

During the second wave of the pandemic, the airport ensured efficient and swift handling of medical aid being received from across the world, with active support from its stakeholders, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) said in a release on Tuesday.

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The country’s busiest airport is the largest cargo hub airport of south Asia region, with two integrated cargo terminals having an annual handling capacity of 1.8 million MT, which is scalable to 2.3 million MT.

With the handling of 100th relief flight on Tuesday, the airport recorded the highest movements of COVID relief aid among all domestic airports amid the pandemic, DIAL said. Delhi International Airport handled 100 COVID-19 relief flights between April 27 and May 25 this year with 1,750 metric tonnes of relief material from over 36 countries.

The 100th flight carrying 10 metric tonnes of medical aid from Russia arrived on Tuesday, DIAL said. During this period, the airport successfully handled some of the largest military and commercial aircraft, which include Antonov-124, C-130 Globemasters, C-5, C-17, and IL-76 among other freighters, it said.

These planes brought in consignments of various relief materials such as oxygen generating plants, oxygen generators, concentrators and cylinders, ventilators, Remdesivir injection, patient beds, and medicines like Veklury/Toclizumab, among others.

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These flights arrived from several countries such as the US, UK, Canada, Ireland, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium, Russia, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Denmark, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Australia, DIAL said. Relief material was also transported from Czech Republic, Romania, Singapore, Mauritius, Hong Kong, Japan, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Doha, Kazakhstan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Taiwan, Kuwait and Dubai, it said.

“Delhi Airport has been proactively working as a frontline warrior in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. Handling of 100 COVID relief flights in less than a month has been possible due to the airport’s largest cargo network in the country with different parts of the world and the airport’s state of the art cargo handling facilities,” said Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO-DIAL.

The private airport operator said that for handling these relief flights, the airport has set up a 3,500 sq. meters dedicated interim storage and logistic facility, JEEVODAY warehouse.

In terms of airside infrastructure, Delhi Airport is the first and only airport in the country to have 12 dedicated freighter parking bays, providing ample capacity for the airlines to move cargo to and from the Airport, DIAL stated.