We applaud the readiness progress the air cargo community has made, stepping up for the largest logistics effort we have ever seen for the safe and quick distribution of the Covid-19 vaccine. The latest Sunrays project survey shows that 46% of air cargo industry stakeholders, including airlines, freight forwarders, ground handlers, airport operators and IT solution providers, now feel well prepared for the transportation of Covid-19 vaccines, a “significant increase” compared with only 28% in September.

The industry has clearly stepped up its efforts to get ready for the largest logistics effort ever seen and with 79% feeling more prepared than three months ago, we applaud the readiness progress the air cargo community has made. It is very encouraging to see that the majority of our industry has established working relationships with vaccine manufacturers, dedicated teams in place and collaborates with their supply chain partners to handle the logistics of Covid-19 vaccines.

Although the air cargo industry has scaled up its capabilities, collaboration and readiness in the past couple of months, and Covid-19 vaccines are getting approved for wide distribution, we still live in a world with a lot of unknowns. As new vaccine requirements, purchase deals and regulatory approvals are announced everyday air cargo needs to work hand-in-hand to be agile enough to deliver vaccines safely at scale. In order to continue to improve preparedness, vaccine manufacturers need to share information needed by all their logistics providers as early as possible to allow them to make needed investment in time; air cargo players should ensure their sub-contractors and supply chain partners receive the right level of information as early as possible; and industry needs to adopt a local air cargo community approach to strengthen collaboration at local levels.