The Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), a GVK-led company that manages the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), on June 21 helped dispatch a 45 tonnes shipment including pharmaceutical goods and medical equipment to Italy on the first cargo freighter operated by Italian flag carrier Alitalia Airlines.
A cargo-only passenger flight of Alitalia Airlines arrived at 4:19 am on Sunday with import tonnage of 8 tonnes comprising engineering goods and spares and left for Fiumicino airport in Rome with 45 tonnes of pharma goods and medical equipment.
Alitalia converted a wide-body Boeing 777-300 aircraft from a passenger aircraft to a cargo freighter, optimising lower deck and belly space and will be flying to Mumbai from Rome every Sunday up till July. The airline will arrive at 5 am and depart from Mumbai at 5:45 pm.
“The commencement of the airline’s freighter service will further enhance the cargo capacity and connectivity between Mumbai and Rome region. CSMIA has handled similar passenger-cargo flights with airlines such as Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, Emirates Sky Cargo, KLM, Spice Jet, Indigo and Oman Air that have operated passenger flights converted to cargo operations during the lockdown,” GVK-run Mumbai International Airport Ltd said in a statement.
During the ongoing lockdown, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has transported over 3000 tonnes of supplies such as Personal Protective Equipment, masks, gloves, and COVID-19 diagnostic kits which have been operated by over 900 flights including scheduled freighters and non scheduled charters. The essentials which arrived were distributed across Maharashtra, and states like Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh as well as the remote areas of the country.
