Cathay Pacific is adding additional cargo capacity on the pharma corridor between Brussels and Hong Kong to increase links with the European vaccine production hub.

The extra pax-freighter flights are planned until June and the schedule will be adapted according to market demand and other developments.

The airline has seen a growing demand for air freight flights between Belgium and Hong Kong, which is the leading freight and logistics hub in Asia.

“While for now this is a temporary addition to our cargo network to respond to market demand, today’s news is a boost to the entire Cargo, Engineering and Airport teams who have worked extremely hard to display our Cathay spirit and can-do attitude,” said Jansen Stafford, head of cargo Europe, Cathay Pacific.

“With the growing number of vaccines produced, Belgium confirms its position as important location for vaccines producers,“ said Geert Aerts, director cargo & logistics, Brussels Airport Company.

“Brussels Airport is proud to contribute to the logistics of Covid-19 vaccines to all parts of the world, and very happy to welcome Cathay Pacific again, reconnecting the two Pharma CEIV certified centres with each other,” he added.

Earlier this month, Cathay Pacific Cargo delivered the first batch of the initial one million Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to be supplied to Hong Kong, which will be distributed by Fosun Pharma.

The airline also participated in the Unicef Humanitarian Airfreight Initiative, together with the world’s leading airlines, to support the COVAX Facility: a global partnership aimed at fair access to corona vaccines for all countries.