By Juan Pedro Sanchez Zamudio
Latin American Airlines Fly to Russia for The First Time
2020 was a tough year for airlines globally, especially for Latin American airlines, which compared to their peers in Europe, Asia, Oceania and North America, they have not received help from their governments, so the largest had You have to file for Chapter 11 to reorganize and survive the crisis.
On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic allowed different airlines to arrive for the first time in many places. In the case of Latin American airlines, such as Avianca, Aeroméxico, LATAM Airlines and Aerolíneas Argentinas, they landed for the first time in China, in search of medical supplies to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now, and in order to continue fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic, Latin American airlines have begun to fly to Russia, to transport the Sputnik V vaccine.
The first Latin American airline to arrive in Russia has been Aerolíneas Argentinas, which already has 6 special flights to the European-Asian country.
The first Aerolineas Argentinas flight to Russia took place on Dec. 22, 2020. The 18-hour direct flight departed from Buenos Aires and arrived to Moscow, had a crew of 20 people to carry out the 40 hours’ operation without taking a breakdown route. The crew was made up of pilots, cabin crew, dispatchers and cargo personnel. The second flight took place on Jan. 14, the third on Jan. 26, the fourth on Feb. 10, and the fifth and sixth on Feb. 26.
In different press releases, the Argentinean carrier explained these type of operations, which requires coordinated work to maintain safety in each of the stages and until each and every one of them is confirmed, it is not possible to start with the one that corresponds to us: the cargo flight.
Besides the usual flight operations: slot orders, contracting of suppliers, flight permits, etc.; in these special operations, the ground logistics must be carried out in a coordinated way to not waste additional time in the boarding of the vaccines.
Land logistics implies that once the operation is authorized, the forwarder goes to the laboratory to pack the vaccines in special containers. Then, these are documented and transported to the airport to carry out the customs process and their subsequent storage on the plane.
In the first two flights, 600,000 doses of Sputnik V arrived in Argentina, while in the third, 220,000 doses arrived. Finally, on the fourth flight, 400,000 new doses arrived at the South American country.
On the other hand, Aeroméxico made the first flight in its history to Russia, thanks to the trust provided by DHL Global Forwarding to finalize a charter cargo transportation operation.
In a press release, the Mexican carrier announced that last March 8 from Mexico City stopping over in Madrid and landed on March 9 at the Moscow Sheremetyevo International Airport in Russia. Once the cargo had been deposited, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft departed to Mexico City with a stopover at the Spanish capital and landed on March 12.
The round trip consisted of a total of more than 32 hours of flight and almost 25,000 kilometers with a total crew of nine pilots.
With this flight, in the last 12 months, Aeroméxico has landed for the first time with its Boeing 787 Dreamliner in 20 airports in 14 countries, being the following: Belo Horizonte, Cabo Frio, Cali, Fortaleza, Frankfurt, Guatemala, Guayaquil, Hong Kong, Kingston, Moscow, Panama, Porto Alegre, Quito, Santo Domingo, San José, San Pedro Sula, San Salvador, Shenzhen, Winnipeg and Wuhan.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Aeroméxico has transported more than 6,400 cargo tons through 325 charter operations for the transfer of medical supplies and other merchandise to Mexico and 16 other countries.
The three things Juan Pedro loves most about aviation are aircraft, airports, and traveling thousands of miles in just a few hours. What he enjoys the most about aviation is that it is easier and cheaper to travel around the world and this gives you the opportunity to visit places you thought were too far away. He has traveled to different destinations in North, Central, South America and Asia. Born, raised and still living in Perú, Juan is a lawyer, soccer lover, foodie, passionate traveler, dog lover, millennial and curious by nature.
