COVID-19: UAE’s Hope Consortium and Astral Aviation sign agreement to enhance vaccine distribution in Africa

Abu Dhabi: As part of its continued commitment to vaccine distribution in Africa, the UAE’s Hope Consortium has partnered with Kenya-based cargo airline, Astral Aviation, to offer vaccine distribution solutions to Africa. This highlights the Hope Consortium’s efforts in reinforcing partnerships that focus on fighting the COVID-19 global pandemic, as well as fulfilling the organisation’s mission as a global logistics facilitator, by aiding in vaccine delivery.

As part of the partnership agreement, both entities will focus on intra-African cooperation to enhance vaccine distribution within the African continent. The Hope Consortium will utilise Astral Aviation’s comprehensive network, technologies and market expertise to support its global objective of facilitating vaccine availability with a specific emphasis on the African continent. The alliance will ensure timely delivery of vaccines and critical supplies to all 54 African nations.

Facilitating immunisation programmes

This synergetic collaboration with the Hope Consortium will see Astral Aviation provide capacity for vaccine deliveries on its scheduled and chartered freighter network, in addition to world-class drone solutions and systems to Africa, with the purpose of facilitating immunisation programmes.

Commenting on the partnership, Mr Sanjeev Gadhia, CEO of Astral Aviation, said: “We are truly honoured to partner with the HOPE Consortium and participate in the critical distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, based on our track record in performing humanitarian initiatives and vaccine flights within Africa. Astral will add further technological and warehousing solutions for distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines from the hub in Abu Dhabi, to all the 54 countries in Africa directly or via its Nairobi Hub.”

‘A high-priority market’

Through this partnership, the Hope Consortium furthers its end-to-end supply chains required to distribute vaccines from their base in Abu Dhabi to all African countries. The Hope Consortium has geared its operations to transport millions of critical COVID-19 vaccines to any country in need and thus far has handled more than 100 million vaccine doses across 40 countries.

Robert Sutton, head of Logistics Cluster, Abu Dhabi Ports, said: “Africa has always been a high-priority market for the Hope Consortium, and to that end, we are pleased to join hands with Astral Aviation. With a track record of operating over 20 years within Africa, their expertise provides a new dimension towards achieving our overarching objectives. This partnership reinforces the Hope Consortium’s aim of creating a sustainable ecosystem, based on our collective global networks, logistics and supply chain capabilities, in order to facilitate vaccine distribution across the world.”