Florida-based National Airlines recently operated its B747-400 freighter from Mumbai to Chicago via Saudi Arabia, carrying 100 tonnes of essential medicines on behalf of JUSDA India, supply chain management platform for Foxconn Technology Group.
With air cargo playing a crucial role in COVID-19 response, National Airlines has been flying around the world for the US Government’s Project Airbridge by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and other government and commercial entities using its own fleet of freighters and passenger aircraft to carry personal protective equipment (PPE) and other medical supplies to every state in the US and world-wide over the last three months.
In March, immediately after the Indian government declared a complete nation-wide lockdown, National Airlines had flown into Mumbai, one of the hotspots of the COVID-19 pandemic with ventilators and related critical supplies from the US. This is the second time National Airlines operated its freighter to Mumbai.
“We are extremely happy to associate with National to operate this flight from Mumbai (BOM) to Chicago (ORD) carrying essential pharmaceuticals for our esteemed pharmaceutical customers. We intend to do more of such missions in the coming days,” JUSDA India General Manager Saurabh Goyal said.
“We have had done multiple flights from India during the current crisis. We have carried critical cargo into India and from India to the United States. We are very happy to associate with JUSDA for this pharmaceutical mission,” National Air Cargo President and Board Member Jacob Matthew said.
Project Airbridge was created to reduce the time it takes for the US medical supply distributors to receive personal protective equipment and other critical supplies into the country for their respective customers. National Airlines has been a critical stakeholder in these missions connecting the world including critical supplies to Haiti and the cargo carrier has done several of these charter missions in the last three months.
