65 million Covid test kits from China to Australia
Over the past six weeks, aircraft charter broker Air Charter Service (ACS) has arranged over 65 charter flights carrying 3,000 t from China to Australia. Each flight had more than one million Covid test kits on board, which are provided free to all Australian households.
Demand in the country has been extremely high, prompting the need for a series of charter flights to speed up the supply chain. ACS arranged flights from several airports in China, where the kits are manufactured, mainly flying from Shenzhen.
Due to the global shortage of freighter capacity, ACS sourced passenger aircraft that had all the seats removed, allowing a higher volume and payloads of up to 50 t on some of the flights. The charters were managed by ACS’s Australian and Singapore cargo teams, utilising A330s and A340s. (ah)