Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), Airbus and Bolloré Logistics have joined forces to expedite the distribution of two million facemasks to health workers in France and Spain to help protects medical workers and citizens in the battle against COVID-19.

Coordinated with Bolloré, Airbus operated one of its own A330-800 passenger aircraft to Tianjin, China to collect the shipment and back to Toulouse, France where WFS’ cargo handling specialised offloaded the cargo and made the necessary preparations for the masks to be forwarded to their destinations.

“The critical need for face masks to prevent coronavirus infections has led to a global shortage of this essential equipment. It is therefore vital for the air logistics chain to be able to respond immediately when new stocks become available. With our global network of cargo handling stations, we have teams on the ground ready to ensure these life-saving cargoes reach those who need them within just a matter of hours. This is the power of air cargo and demonstrates the vital importance of the entire air cargo supply chain to the global response to the coronavirus. We will be working with Airbus and Bolloré Logistics on more relief flights carrying urgent medical equipment in the coming days. This is a race against time. I also want to thank the WFS cargo team in Toulouse because we are very proud of the commitment and professionalism they are showing in the current, most challenging circumstances,” commented Hugo Rodrigues, vice president of cargo in France at WFS.

Marc Yorann, project manager at Bolloré Logistics added: “We want to thank everyone involved in helping to ensure this most urgent cargo reached the front-line medical staff so quickly. It is important that the medical profession helping to treat COVID-19 patients can feel confident that the logistics and cargo handling industry is there to provide all the help and support they need at this most difficult time, and has the ability to act immediately.”