Abu Dhabi’s Hope Consortium, Astral Aviation sign deal to boost vaccine distribution in Africa

Abu Dhabi’s Hope Consortium has partnered with Kenya-based cargo airline, Astral Aviation, to enhance vaccine distribution within the African continent.

The Hope Consortium will utilise Astral Aviation’s network, technologies, and market expertise, to support its global objective of facilitating vaccine availability with a specific emphasis on the African continent. The alliance will ensure timely delivery of vaccines and critical supplies to all 54 African nations.

Hope Consortium, the public-private partnership coordinating the safe and efficient international distribution of millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines, has partnered with Astral Aviation to enhance distribution within the African continent. pic.twitter.com/sCk0HYAQyo

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Astral Aviation operates a fleet of 14 freighter aircraft and provides UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) integrated drone-based solutions, as well as warehousing solutions to both in-store and remote locations, Abu Dhabi Government Media Office reported.

Astral Aviation will provide capacity for vaccine deliveries on its scheduled and charter freighter network, in addition to drone solutions and systems to Africa, with the purpose of facilitating immunisation programmes, the statement added.

Sanjeev Gadhia, CEO of Astral Aviation, said: “We are truly honoured to partner with the Hope Consortium and participate in the critical distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, based on our track record in performing humanitarian initiatives and vaccine flights within Africa. Astral will add further technological and warehousing solutions for distribution of the Covid-19 vaccines from the hub in Abu Dhabi, to all the 54 countries in Africa directly or via its Nairobi Hub, which occupies 9,000m2 of cold-storage facilities.”

Through this partnership, the HOPE Consortium furthers its end-to-end supply chains required to distribute vaccines from their base in Abu Dhabi to all African countries. It has, thus far, handled over 100 million vaccine doses across 40 countries.”

Robert Sutton, head of logistics cluster, Abu Dhabi Ports, said: “Africa has always been a high priority market for the Hope Consortium, and to that end, we are pleased to join hands with Astral Aviation.

“This partnership reinforces the Hope Consortium’s aim of creating a sustainable ecosystem, based on our collective global networks, logistics and supply chain capabilities, in order to facilitate vaccine distribution across the world. We are confident that this partnership will help enhance Hope Consortium’s efforts in Africa and ensure that no one is left behind in the quest against the pandemic.”

Earlier this year, the consortium developed the largest ‘freezer farm’ in the UAE, in an attempt to boost the capital’s vaccine storage capacity in 2021.

Read: Hope Consortium expands vaccine storage capacity, creates largest ‘freezer farm’ in UAE