MANILA, 27 April 2021: AirAsia gained regulatory approval from the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) Friday to transport Covid-19 vaccines packed in dry ice, allowing the airline to participate in the largest humanitarian effort in the Philippines.
The authorisation precedes the expected arrival of vaccines from Sinovac BioTech, Gamaleya Institute and Pfizer-BioNTech over the coming weeks and months.
According to National Task Force Against Covid-19 Chief Implementer and Vaccine Secretary Carlito Galvez, the country is expecting the delivery of 1 million doses of CoronaVac, 480,000 doses of Sputnik V, 195,000 doses of Pfizer vaccines and 20,000 doses of Gamaleya towards this weekly while Moderna is slated to begin the delivery of 13 million vaccine doses starting June.
AirAsia will transport Covid-19 vaccines from Manila to Cebu and Davao starting this week, followed immediately by Clark and Zamboanga and other routes such as Bacolod and Bohol, Cagayan De Oro, Iloilo, General Santos City and Puerto Princesa using the Airbus A320.
AirAsia also expressed willingness to mount chartered cargo flights to other destinations not presently covered by its existing route network to facilitate prompt delivery of the vaccines.
AirAsia Philippines CEO Ricky Isla said: “Our business model used to be purely air transport. The pandemic made us rethink and reassess essential areas. You can be assured that revitalising the air transportation sector is AirAsia’s commitment to the Filipino people.”
