As the long-awaited Covid-19 vaccines are released, aviation is once again poised to play a major role in this life-saving mission. In close coordination with regulatory bodies in the airline industry, Airbus offers technical guidance and support to its customers and airline operators as they prepare to take on the unprecedented logistical challenge of shipping vaccines around the world.
One of the biggest challenges is preserving the biochemical stability of Covid-19 vaccines throughout the journey, keeping them extremely cold, and some down to minus 70 degrees Celsius. The most efficient means of keeping such a charge at this temperature is to pack solid “dry ice”, that is, frozen carbon dioxide around it.
Under normal circumstances, dry ice is used by expert cargo specialists with the necessary experience to safely handle such cold and sensitive cargo inside their aircraft. However, the large volume of vaccines that must now be transported around the world requires a much broader involvement of all types of operators and unsurprisingly they have contacted Airbus for guidance on how they can safely contribute to this effort.
In response to the immediate need for airlines to better understand the handling of dry ice transportation in their cargo holds on the lower deck, Airbus has kept its operators up to date in multiple ways, from group webinars to individual consultations and from widely distributed technical updates to targeted information letters.
Airbus recently issued an information pack that included an updated “Service Information Letter” (SIL) describing Airbus’s opinion on the recommendations of the airworthiness authorities, regarding the transport of larger than usual quantities of solid dry ice in the lower deck cargo compartments. ventilated and non-ventilated, as well as on the main deck. Reminds operators of health and safety considerations and measures (especially with regard to ventilation) that must be adhered to during loading or flight.
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