Virgin Atlantic Cargo has become the first British airline to resume scheduled services to China, operating three flights a week from London Heathrow Airport to Shanghai.
The cargo capacity on two of the three times weekly Boeing 787-9 flights from China will be used exclusively by the UK Department of Health and Social Care to increase deliveries of Personal Protective Equipment and medical supplies for front-line British National Healthj Service (NHS) staff.
Virgin Atlantic has so far completed five flights from Shanghai for the NHS, with its Boeing 787-9 services having already delivered 80 tonnes of cargo consisting of 3.5 million items of personal protective equipment, including 50 ventilators, 1.8 million face masks, 600,000 face shields and visors, one million disposable gloves, 38,000 items for eye protection and 75,000 protective coveralls and isolation gowns.
The airline has been given permission to carry cargo on the aircraft’s passenger seats and in overhead lockers as well as the cargo hold to maximise the payload of each flight.
Dominic Kennedy, managing director of Virgin Atlantic Cargo, praised the “herculean effort” of everyone involved in the resumption of the airline’s scheduled services to China.
He added: “These are unprecedented times and we all want to play a part in supporting the NHS. We are proud to be part of the mission to get crucial medical supplies to the UK as fast as possible, which is the result of a fantastic team effort between the authorities and our colleagues right across the airline.”