Singapore Airlines has delivered the first shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to Singapore onboard one of its 747-400 freighters. It was also the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shipment to be delivered to a country in Asia.

The flight departed on 20 December and arrived in Singapore on 21 December at approximately 19.55 local time.

The shipment was prioritised for loading into the aircraft in Brussels and was given similar precedence during unloading in Singapore. It was then transported to the airline’s cold-chain facility, Coolport, for subsequent storage and ground transportation.

Singapore Airlines conducted a successful shipment trial on 19 December on the same freighter flight route.

“The delivery of this first batch of Covid-19 vaccines to Singapore is an important milestone in the fight against Covid-19, and we are honoured to be able to play a part in this,” said Singapore Airlines senior vice president cargo Chin Yau Seng.

“It also served to demonstrate the airline’s and the Singapore air hub’s readiness for the very important job of transporting and distributing Covid-19 vaccines internationally.”

*Last week, Aviation Business News ran a five-part web series called Ready for a vaccine, in association with Peli BioThermal, looking at how company’s from across the industry spectrum are preparing to distribute Covid-19 vaccines.

All parts are available to read: part one features Pharma.Aero and IAG Cargo, part two features Peli BioThermal, part three features Finnair Cargo, part four features Etihad Cargo and part five features Delta Cargo and DoKaSch.