Vaccine cargo lifts airlines as passenger traffic sinks

At a time fewer Indians are flying to limit the risk of coronavirus infections, airlines are focusing on cargo transport for the world’s largest immunization drive underway, transporting millions of vaccines doses across the length and breadth of the country.

Airlines are reconfiguring aircraft and getting more planes to meet the cargo transport demand, which is expected to swell as vaccinations open up for all adults from 1 May.

“IndiGo is currently the leader in terms of the amount of vaccine being transported by air within India—we anticipate this will continue, given our wide network and number of flights, even after some reductions due to lower passenger demand,” said Willie Boulter, chief commercial officer at IndiGo.