Emirates sets up airbridge between Dubai & India to transport critical medical aid

Emirates Airlines has established a humanitarian airbridge between Dubai and India to transport urgent medical and relief supplies in support of India's fight against the deadly COVID-19 outbreak. Emirates will provide free cargo capacity on all of its flights to nine cities in India on an "as needed" basis to aid international NGOs in delivering relief supplies quickly to where they are needed. Emirates SkyCargo has already flown medicines and medical equipment to India on scheduled and charter cargo flights in recent weeks.

Emirates SkyCargo transports medical essentials to India

According to the Emirates official release, HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates’ Chairman and Chief Executive, said, “India and Emirates are deeply connected, since our first flights to India in 1985. We stand with the Indian people and will do all we can to help India get back on its feet. Emirates has a lot of experience in humanitarian relief efforts, and with 95 weekly flights to 9 destinations in India, we will be offering regular and reliable widebody capacity for relief materials. The International Humanitarian City in Dubai is the largest crisis relief hub in the world and we will work closely with them to facilitate the movement of urgent medical supplies.”

In a video shared by Emirates Airline on Twitter, Nabil Sultan, DSVP, Emirates SkyCargo, stated, "Emirates and the UAE stand with India. We have set up a humanitarian airbridge between Dubai and India to transport urgent medical and relief items, to support India in its fight against the serious COVID-19 situation in the country. We will offer cargo capacity free of charge to NGOs, to ship relief items on all our flights from Dubai to nine Indian cities."

Emirates stands with India

The release also stated that Emirates has been at the forefront of the aviation and air cargo industries' efforts to assist markets all over the world in combating the COVID-19 outbreak. Over the last year, the air cargo carrier has helped transport thousands of tonnes of urgently needed PPE and other medical supplies across six continents by quickly adapting its marketing strategy and introducing additional cargo capacity through modified mini freighters on Boeing 777-300ER passenger aircraft with seats removed from Economy Class and cargo loaded on seats and in overhead bins.

Picture Credit: @emirates/Twitter