Governments, airlines must take steps to avoid bottlenecks when a Covid-19 vaccine is ready to roll, warns aviation industry chief

Governments need to develop streamlined importing procedures to avoid distribution bottlenecks, along with uniform quarantine standards for transporting staff and crew, says a director of IATA

‘It is clear that government and regulatory bodies will be paramount to the success of the major and unique challenge that the air cargo industry is facing,’ said Frédéric Léger

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For the airline industry, the main challenges include ensuring there is sufficient transport capacity, and the complexities of the delivery process itself. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 6:15pm, 17 Nov 2020Updated: 6:14pm, 19 Nov 2020

Governments have a critical role to play in preparing for the roll-out of a Covid-19 vaccine that is expected to be in the air by the end of the year, an airlines industry boss said on Tuesday.

As airlines work to restore transport capacity that has been gutted by restrictions on international travel, governments need to implement a streamlined importing process that can prevent bottlenecks once vaccines cross a country’s borders, said Frédéric Léger, director for airport, passenger, cargo and security products at the International Airport Transport Association (IATA).

That includes declaring vaccines “essential goods” and developing simplified, fast-track inspection procedures, as well as actions such as the European Commission’s recent decision to waive taxes and duties on pharmaceutical imports, said Léger, speaking online at the 10th Asian Logistics, Maritime and Aviation Conference.

Other important steps include putting in place uniform standards to ensure that aircraft crew are not hampered by successive rounds of quarantine as they deliver vaccines across borders.

“It is clear that government and regulatory bodies will be paramount to the success of the major and unique challenge that the air cargo industry is facing,” said Léger.

For the airline industry, the main challenges in the coming months include ensuring there is sufficient transport capacity, and the complexities of the delivery process itself.

With two thirds of all global passenger flights still grounded because of limitations on international travel, the total capacity available for air cargo transport – which normally delivers roughly half of its goods on passenger flights – remained down 25 per cent annually in September, said Léger.

More than 100 airlines have worked to boost capacity by converting grounded passenger planes into use for cargo transport, while others have extended the average time each is flown by 30 minutes.

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