GoAir airlifts over 15L doses of COVID vaccine on Wed

GoAir is operating flights carrying the vaccine doses to Lucknow, Chennai, Cochin, Port Blair and Kolkata on Wednesday, the airline said.

Mumbai: Wadia Group-owned no-frills airline GoAir has airlifted 15,91,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to various destinations from Mumbai, Pune and Chennai on Wednesday in the second phase of vaccine transportation amid the on-going inoculation drive in the country.

GoAir is operating flights carrying the vaccine doses to Lucknow, Chennai, Cochin, Port Blair and Kolkata on Wednesday, it said.

In the first phase, which started from January 13, the city-headquartered air operator transported a total of 7,20,000 doses to five destinations.

"Vaccine transportation continues our on-going work since the beginning of the first movement to keep critical supply-chain operating, meet the increased level of domestic delivery and ship more than seven lakh across India," GoAir Chief Executive Officer, Kaushik Khona said in a statement to PTI.

According to the airline, it transported 18,000 doses of the vaccine to Goa from Mumbai on its flight G8-308, which landed in Goa at 6.30 am and another flight carrying 94,000 doses arrived at Lucknow from Mumbai at 8.20 am on Wednesday.

The airline also operated a flight to Chennai from Pune which carried 5,20,000 doses of the vaccine of which 13,500 doses were for Puducherry and the rest for Tamil Nadu. It also operated a service to Port Blair from Chennai with 6,000 doses.

The flight G8 347 operating on the Mumbai-Cochin transported 2,52,000 doses of the vaccine, of which 2,51,000 doses were bound for Kerala and the remaining 1,000 doses for Lakshadweep Island, the airline said in the statement.

GoAir's flight from Pune for Kolkata airlifted 6,99,000 doses for West Bengal, it added.

In the two phases together, GoAir has carried a total of 23,11,000 doses, the airline said.

"During the first phase of the vaccine movement, GoAir had a share of 22 per cent in the total vaccine transportation while in the second phase, in the second phase 36 per cent of the vaccine movement is on our network," the airline said.

"We are moving the lion's share of the Covid-19 vaccine in the second phase of ongoing efforts to support pandemic relief. The GoAir network and team are uniquely positioned to deliver on the mission in India," said Khona.

(PTI)