Ukrainain carrier Antonov Airlines has transported essential machinery for the production of Covid-19 vaccines between Germany and the US, in partnership with DHL Global forwarding.

The carrier operated six charter flights amidst poor weather conditions due to snowstorms in the US. It deployed its AN-124s to airlift the consignments, each weighing 100 tonnes, which were loaded and unloaded onto the aircraft using external cranes and loading equipment developed by in-house engineers.

From Frankfurt-Hahn Airport in Germany, Antonov delivered the shipment to different air hubs in the US, including Baltimore (BWI) in Maryland, and Kinston Regional Jetport (ISO) in North Carolina. Due to heavy snowfall one of the flights had to be re-routed from BWI to Stewart International Airport (SWF) in New York to ensure safe delivery of cargo.

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“The flights were a great charter project that we carried out together with Antonov Airlines professionally and to the fullest customer satisfaction,” said Christopher Klein, senior manager global charters, DHL Global Forwarding.

“In the past few months there have been a number of challenges to master, most recently a snowstorm on the US east coast, which meant we had to change the destination airport at short notice,” he added.

Dmytro Prosvirin, head of customer service at Antonov Airlines, said; “It is a global effort in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and we are honoured that Antonov Airlines played a key role in this.”