Until a few weeks ago, when someone used the term “airlift” in Madrid, there was no doubt that he was referring to the route that linked the Spanish capital with the Catalan capital since 1974, on flights that depart at rush hour with a frequency of a quarter of an hour. However, with most commercial aviation paralyzed as a result of the coronavirus, Since last March 30, the only airlift that is operational is the one that connects Spain and China three days a week: Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It was two weeks ago when Iberia, the Spanish Federation of Health Technology Companies (FENIN) and the Oesía Group they sealed their agreement to open what they call “Sanitary corridor”, an initiative with which they seek to supply the health of the materials that are scarce in the Spanish market. The holds of this Airbus 350-900 were loaded last Wednesday with six million masks, medical oxygen flowmeters and components to make respirators. The global balance is very positive. So far, according to the data that the airline provides in its WebThey have managed to bring to Spain 16 million masks, 2 million protective materials, complete respirators for the UCIS and even, as in Wednesday’s plane, components so that the national industry can manufacture its own respirators. Margarita Blanco, Iberia’s communication director, cannot cope these days: “We have a lot of work, but the most incredible thing is that we don’t have flights.”
Listen to IB2820, the 28-hour Madrid-Shanghai-Madrid flight loaded with medical supplies at Play SER
The huge screens at the airport confirm Margarita’s claim. Hardly a dozen flights are scheduled for the whole day. Most to the islands and some to the autonomous communities furthest from Madrid such as Galicia or the Basque Country. The aerodrome is completely deserted. Nothing invites us to think that, only during 2019, more than 61 million people They went through their facilities. Of course, the public address warnings continue to operate unrelated to reality: “Important notice: because of the public address system of this airport, no boarding calls are made”. I have always found it curious that they warn you that they will not warn you, but it is more surprising to me now, that these ads do not reach anyone’s ears. Perhaps this is one of the issues that we should review when everything returns to normal.
The IB2820 plane, from Shanghai, finally lands at 4:48 am, twenty minutes before the scheduled time. Next, an arsenal of personnel appears with machinery to carry out the unloading as quickly as possible. “It will take us approximately 20 minutes to transport everything to the cargo terminal,” says José Luis, one of the operators. He is responsible for the unloading operation and carries with him a small folder in which he notes the exact minute in which each of the tasks necessary to carry out the 15,171 kilos of material that transports this plane to customs.
28 hours of travel for 15,171 kilos of medical equipment
Inside the plane, the eight pilots in charge of directing the aircraft begin to collect their belongings. It is already five in the morning and, after 28 hours of flight, the fatigue begins to take its toll. In the cockpit is Txomin Baztán, the pilot in charge of the landing maneuver. Baztán is not just any pilot, he is the director of flight operations for Iberia and, although in recent times he is used to spending more time on the ground than on the plane, he continues to be “The boss of all pilots”, as you hear a colleague say.
“The flight went great. We started in Madrid two days ago. We arrived in Barajas early and left for Shanghai without delay. The Chinese people collaborated with everything and were very efficient with the load, “says Txomin. He says that the biggest problem they find when loading the plane is not the weight, but the volume, due to the capacity of the warehouses: “It is as if we carried a lot of air because there is a lot of textile material: masks, protective suits… ”.
Flight IB2820 landed at 4:48 a.m. on Wednesday April 8, 20 minutes before the scheduled time
/ Daniel Sousa / Cadena SER
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In go, load and return from China takes a total of 28 hours. They hardly stop an hour and a half at their destination to check the plane, refuel and load the merchandise. The eight pilots are divided into six-hour shifts to avoid fatigue. They sleep in the business class seats of the aircraft, but they do not have all the services that this rate usually has. One of those that is missing is the catering service. “The kitchen is a save yourself who can. Luckily a colleague from San Sebastián is coming… ”one of them says with humor. They have trays with sausages, pasta dishes or salad and “we have even had a hot dish.” It seems that the plane, instead of just landing, is preparing to take off, because it smells clean and the seat blankets are perfectly folded and placed.
Each flight is performed by a different crew. In their case, they have created a WhatsApp group to coordinate all the tasks: who lands and who takes off, when they are going to sign or when they are going to carry out the medical tests of the COVID-19. The latter is essential, since if any of them had symptoms while the plane is in China, they would have to remain there in quarantine and could not return to Spain with the cargo. Everyone knows each other, “from 30 or 40 years ago”, even several shared an apartment in Salamanca when they were younger. “If you keep asking us about us, in the end stories will start to come out,” one of them laughs.
Txomin Baztan, Francisco Javier Díaz Alonso, Andrés Gutiérrez, Juan Miguel Prado, Angel Luis Albaladejo, Fernando Ramírez, Javier Lanzos and Pedro Antonio Rosa have formed the team that has piloted this aircraft to the Chinese city of Shanghai
/ Daniel Sousa / Cadena SER
“We are the same as the bus driver, the cashiers or anyone who is working. We have heroes everywhere ”
The pilot Ángel Luis Albaladejo perfectly remembers the last commercial flight he made. He went to Santiago de Chile on April 1. “I knew it was the last flight. In fact, that’s what I told the passengers. This is the last flight, but we will fly again soon. I am optimistic by nature ”he points out. The AIRBUS with which Iberia flies to the American continent are like this. They have a capacity for 348 passengers, but in Ángel Luis’s, that day barely 150 people traveled. This group of pilots has gone from transporting people who wanted to spend their vacations in an exotic destination or business people willing to swell their current account numbers, to load the merchandise that Spanish healthcare needs to face the pandemic. At the moment, they are spared for a season from having to give the welcome message to the passage because the only ones who fly are them and the rules are already known. “Seeing an airplane like that empty is super sad,” says Albaladejo.
–At Adolfo Suárez-Madrid Barajas airport, less than a dozen flights land these days in Terminal 4, the only one that is still open
/ Daniel Sousa / Cadena SER
“We are the same as the bus driver, the cashiers or anyone who is working. We have heroes everywhere ”. The next flight to China will take off from Madrid next Monday and, in what this team agrees, is that “All the pilots of the company are looking forward to making these flights. They asked for volunteers and the response was unanimous. ”
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