Emirates to fly COVID-19 medical aid to India

Emirates Airline is stepping up efforts to help India in its fight against COVID-19, offering to fly medical supplies to nine cities free of charge from this week.

The first shipment, under the humanitarian airbridge, will transport over 12 tonnes of multi-purpose tents from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to the Indian capital of Delhi.

The supplies will be organised through Dubai's International Humanitarian City.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates’ Chairman and Chief Executive, highlighted how Emirates is “deeply connected” with India, since its first flight to the country in 1985.

India and @emirates are deeply connected, since our first flights to India in 1985. We stand with the Indian people and will do all we can to help India get back on its feet. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/GK80DMoTui

— HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum (@HHAhmedBinSaeed) May 9, 2021

“We stand with the Indian people and will do all we can to help India get back on its feet. Emirates has a lot of experience in humanitarian relief efforts, and with 95 weekly flights to 9 destinations in India, we will be offering regular and reliable widebody capacity for relief materials," he said.

“The International Humanitarian City in Dubai is the largest crisis relief hub in the world and we will work closely with them to facilitate the movement of urgent medical supplies.”

In addition, Emirates SkyCargo has partnered with UNICEF and other entities in Dubai through the Dubai Vaccine Logistics Alliance, to transport COVID-19 vaccines rapidly to developing nations.

So far, close to 60 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been transported on Emirates’ flights, equating to nearly 1 in 20 of all COVID-19 vaccine doses administered around the world.