GMR Hyderabad, Dubai Airports to launch HYDXB-VAXCOR project for Covid-19 vaccine distribution
As per the MoU, GMR-HYD and Dubai Airports will give priority to the temperature sensitive vaccine shipments moving between them for further connections throughout the world.
Given its large and capable pharma industry that boasts of some of the largest vaccine manufacturers globally, India has a very strategic role to play in ensuring universal access to Covid-19 vaccines. With Hyderabad and its nearby regions being home to one of the biggest concentrations of vaccine manufacturing capacity in the world, it is expected that majority of Indian manufactured vaccines will be exported from Hyderabad Airport (HYD) to various parts of the globe. Hyderabad is also expected to cater to the Import requirements of manufactures from across the country as well as leverage its excellent air connectivity for domestic distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.
In this backdrop, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited and GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GMR-HYD) and Dubai Airports have come together to build an exclusive Vaccine Air Freight Corridor product called HYDXB-VAXCOR (Hyderabad to Dubai global vaccine corridor). Pradeep Panicker, CEO-GMR Hyderabad International Airport, Saurabh Kumar, CEO-GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo and Eugene Barry, EVP-Commercial, Dubai Airports Corporation signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in a virtual ceremony organised last week.
As per the MoU, GMR-HYD and Dubai Airports will give priority to the temperature sensitive vaccine shipments moving between GMR Hyderabad and Dubai Airports for further connections to various continents as part of the HYDXB-VAXCOR and build this service offering as a key differentiator and value proposition for the vaccine customers and logistics stakeholders. This agreement will lead to the roll out of customised and simplified processes and infrastructural support to streamline the journey of Covid-19 vaccine right from the manufacturing unit to the airport and hub logistics to delivery to end-customers.
As part of this joint initiative, Dubai Airports has identified GMR-HYD as a key strategic air cargo partner to leverage its global distribution ecosystem, while GMR-HYD will leverage Dubai Airport as a key strategic collaborator towards facilitating the global vaccine supply chain with provision of value added services for vaccine exporters and importers from both the countries. The partnership also entails a technology collaboration, under which both the entities will explore and work together on an integrated IT solution that will provide end-to-end visibility including shipment temperature and status tracking for the customers while cargo is in transit between HYD and DXB and during its onwards journey to various global destinations.
Commenting on this development, Pradeep Panicker, CEO, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd., said, “GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo has always been the preferred gateway for India’s vaccine exports. In the current global context, there is a need for meticulous planning & collaborations to ensure safe and efficient air transportation of Covid-19 vaccines. Accordingly, we have partnered with Dubai Airports to jointly offer HYDXB-VAXCOR for global distribution of Covid-19 Vaccines. We are also significantly upgrading our handling capacities for Covid-19 vaccine shipments requiring cold to ultra-cold temperature ranges and becoming India’s largest air cargo centre both for export/imports and domestic distribution of the vaccine.”
SGK Kishore, executive director - south and chief innovation officer, GMR Airports, said, “As the world embarks on an unprecedented vaccination drive to combat Covid-19, our collaboration with Dubai Airports in the form of an exclusive Vaccine Air Freight Corridor - HYDXB-VAXCOR will play a key role in enabling seamless, safe and efficient shipment of Covid-19 vaccines to and from Hyderabad, the pharma capital of South Asia.”
“A major surge in demand for the efficient, safe and reliable global distribution of high volumes of Covid-19 vaccines is expected in the coming months and as the world’s preeminent hub of choice, we wanted to be ready to respond to and accommodate that demand. Our partnership with GMR-Hyderabad is timed perfectly just as the global race to develop the vaccines enters the final stage. This corridor is the result of our proactive strategy to be ready with innovative, collaborative and agile shipping solutions for the industry,” said Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports.
GMR-HYD is uniquely located in the proximity of several major vaccine producers and is an established hub for export of India manufactured vaccines to target markets in Europe, Africa, the US and Asia. It is uniquely positioned to handle temperature sensitive vaccine cargo and ensure seamless distribution across the world through major hubs such as Dubai Airports. GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo is a WHO-GSDP (World Health Organisation- Good Storage and Distribution Practices) certified major gateway location in India for handling pharma and vaccine shipments. It has India’s first dedicated Pharma Zone, large sized tunnel x-ray machine and one of the major stocking stations for various cool containers like Envirotainer, va-Q-tec, CSafe, DoKaSch which are key to safe transportation of Covid-19 vaccines.
GMR-HYD is expanding its facilities and streamlining processes both on landside and airside to meet the unique requirements of handling Covid-19 vaccine. It has already launched a large, custom built Cool Dolly, a mobile refrigerated unit for airside transportation till aircraft maintaining the cold-chain, which is scalable.
