25 May 2020: As the COVID-19 pandemic spread thick and fast throughout the world, some industries and sectors emerged as heroes in the fight against this pandemic. One such blazing example is the Heathrow airport. To find out how the Heathrow airport help in essential supplies, watch the following video
Tonnes of hospital equipment, PPE, sterilisation and disinfecting products, medical oxygen, medicines, swabs and test kits from cargo carriers were unloaded at the Heathrow airport right from the start of the pandemic. As per the latest statistics, just in three months, from January to March about 5,269 tonnes of specific medical cargo have been offloaded at Heathrow. In March alone, Heathrow imported nearly 33% of the UK’s critical equipment to fight Covid-19, by value, compared to all other ports in the UK.
Commenting on the latest figures, Elizabeth de Jong, Director of Policy, Freight Transport Association (FTA) said, “Air cargo has been vital to maintaining the integrity of the UK’s supply chain, and helped businesses cope with unprecedented demand in areas including medical supplies, food and other essentials. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the resilience of the UK’s logistics industry, helped in no small part by the flexibility of air operators via Heathrow to release additional capacity to support UK PLC”
In coming months, these figures are bound to shoot up with the increasing demand of essential items and rising trends of passenger to freighter conversions. British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines are just some of the airlines who have re-invented the use of passenger planes by using seats, overhead lockers and the hold to carry vital sup
plies.
Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said, “Heathrow is more than just an airport – it is the country’s biggest front door, not only for people, but also the time-critical, sensitive cargo that is essential to the UK’s front line heroes.”
With this report we can easily conclude that even though the total imports in UK are falling, imports through Heathrow continue to increase.
