AEROLÍNEAS Argentinas makes a SANITARY FLIGHT to CHINA

Aerolineas Argentinas started this Wednesday the special flight to Shanghai, China, with the aim of bringing medical supplies and materials for preventive use to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and which joins others coordinated by the Foreign Ministry, with the same purpose, from the Asian giant.

The Airbus 330–200, specially reconditioned for cargo transportation, took off from Ezeiza with 21 crew, four commanders, eight pilots, two operational dispatchers, two cargo specialists, three aeronautical technicians, one inspector and one aircraft dispatcher.

This is due to the large number of flight stages, the time zone differences and the fact that workers will not be able to leave the aircraft during the entire operation (in order to comply with the isolation regulations), so they must feed and sleep inside the plane.

The objective will be to bring 13 tons of critical supplies, among which is sanitary and protective material for prevention tasks against Covid-19, which were required by the government of the province of Buenos Aires.

The flight to Shanghai constitutes “an operation unprecedented in the company’s 70-year history, as it will last around 55 hours, with six hours of work at the airport of the Chinese commercial capital for the stowage of medical materials and will cover 38,200 kilometers between there and back, crossing three continents, “said sources from the flag company.

A supply layover is planned in Auckland, New Zealand, before arriving at the destination, while the return is scheduled for April 18.

Due to the large amount of material that will be transported, during the weekend the technical and commercial teams of the airlines worked to recondition the passenger cabin with the use of container nets to expand the cargo capacity of the aircraft (beyond the use of the space in the warehouse), which managed to increase by 84%.

As it is the first time that Airlines has made a flight to the Asian continent and taking into account the distances to be covered and the characteristics of the aircraft, a specific analysis of the air routes was carried out to determine which was the most efficient route.

Finally, it was decided that the plane would head west across the Pacific Ocean, practically in a straight line over Easter Island and carrying a load of fuel at Auckland airport, to start the journey to Shanghai from there.

“This is an unprecedented event in the history of the company. I want to congratulate all the professionals of Aerolineas Argentinas for the work done to enable, prepare and prepare these special flights placed at the service of the country and, therefore, of all Argentines “explained Pablo Ceriani, president of Aerolineas.

The flight joins the 48 special operations that the company programmed and that since March 18 allowed more than 16,000 Argentines to return to the country with flights from Miami, Madrid, Punta Cana, Cancun, Bogotá, Quito, Lima, San Salvador de Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, San Pablo, Porto Seguro and Florianópolis.

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