Bolloré, Groupe, Qatar bridge medical supplies to France

Bolloré Logistics successfully received 333 m3 of medical equipment at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport coming from China, after a stopover in Doha, Qatar, on April 10. The company’s-chartered plane, a Qatar Airways Cargo Boeing 777 freighter, also had on board products from several industries. This operation was made possible by a successful mobilisation of Groupe ADP, Bolloré Logistics and Qatar Airways Cargo.

At Bolloré Logistics’ Paris-Charles de Gaulle hub, France's leading airline hub with more than 100.000 tonnes of freight handled in 2019, a crisis unit has been created to respond to emergency needs. It provides for each shipment an alternative transport plan combining flexibility and speed of execution by relying on its international network covering 107 countries. Connected to all international Airports, the Paris-Charles de Gaulle hub enjoys a strategic location with direct access to runways. In 2019, a fifth cell of 6.000 sqm was built, bringing the surface area to 33.000 sqm.

At this occasion, Henri Le Gouis, CEO Europe of Bolloré Logistics, said, “we are happy to join other players at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport to ease the transportation of pharmaceutical products and protection masks, aimed to be distributed in all France's regions. We also thank the French Customs as well as our partners Groupe ADP and Qatar Airways for their support and the trust in us. The Bolloré Logistics whole network is involved to provide scalable solutions and helps clients to face this crisis.”

On its side, Qatar Airways Cargo is operating a large number of Boeing 777 freighters with a capacity of 100 tons each between China and France for its customers with the first freighter having commenced on 8 April. The freighters originate from Guangzhou and Shanghai and serve as an air bridge to France, delivering essential cargo and humanitarian aid. The cargo carrier has partnered with the French Embassy in Doha to support the French government and French Ministry of Health in their fight against the deadly pandemic.

For this reason, Guillaume Halleux, chief officer cargo at Qatar Airways said, “Air freight plays a critical role in the global response to the COVID-19 crisis and has become the lifeline of the world. We are honoured to be able to support France with a special flight operated by a crew of French nationals.”

For its part, Groupe ADP, which operates with Paris-Charles de Gaulle the leading European airport for cargo - with 2.2 million tonnes of freight and posts handled in 2019, 300 ha in one piece and 700.000 sqm cargo facilities with direct access to the runways - has been strongly mobilised since the start of the crisis with all the players in the sector (Customs and Civil Aviation departments, freight forwarders, handlers, integrators and companies to ensure the continuity of air freight, and therefore the maintenance of an essential economic activity for the country.

Marc Houalla, executive director of Groupe ADP and Managing Director of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport, explains, “we want to thanks all our partners and especially the DGAC (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) which has in particular enabled optimal use of the slots usually devoted to passenger flights for the exclusive transport of goods, and several companies operating at the airport have thus been able to reassign their passenger planes as “ferry” planes “in which the entire hold is now used to transport goods”.