Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) has been and continues to be, pivotal in reducing thetransmission of COVID-19. Those working in health and care sectors specifically have hadtheir lives depend on appropriate safety equipment, including masks, gloves, aprons, and eyeprotection.
Chapman Freeborn is proud to have played their part, delivering millions of PPE items tothose in need since March 2020 when the COVID-19 outbreak began, and they continue todeliver as the pandemic still has its grip around the globe.
Air cargo immediately became a very different industry in the wake of the travel and tourismsector coming to a grinding halt; usually, the belly hold of passenger flights is full of cargo aswell as passenger luggage, so without these flights operating companies needed to findanother way to transport their goods.
Passenger carriers that were grounded due to their countries’ lockdowns worked with localauthorities to modify passenger cabins into spaces that could hold cargo. This alleviated thestrain and capacity issues on the cargo industry and opened up physical space for PPE to betransported across the world. This is something that is still happening over a year after thepandemic was declared.
Chapman Freeborn started working with a handful of carriers to transport PPE on AirbusA321 aircraft operated by parent company Avia Solutions Group (ASG) and subsequentlyalso chartered a variety of other passenger aircraft including the B777-200, B777-300, A330,A340, B, B767, 787, and even the Airbus A380.
Additionally, large legacy freight forwarders bought bulk aircraft capacity, resulting inChapman Freeborn making commitments with them for long-term PPE and general cargocontracts on dedicated aircraft. This resulted in Chapman Freeborn looking further afield,working with specialized project carriers such as Antonov Airlines and Volga Dnepr, whooffered their fleet of AN124s and the world’s largest freighter, the six-engine AN225, to bechartered by Chapman Freeborn.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Chapman Freeborn has arranged many hundredsof relief flights transporting life-saving PPE and medical equipment all over the world,including face masks, nitrile gloves, respirators, and even a mobile hospital.
