The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) has processed further 6,50,225 Kg of Covid-19 relief supplies in the city from April 1 to May 19, 2021, from which 5.42 lakh Kg of materials are imports and the remnant 1.08 lakh represents the domestic materials.
In the month of April, there were 200 shipments, however, as many as 800 shipments came in the 20 days of May, thereby adding up to 25,891 pieces of Covid-19 related cargo, as per Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL).
Amid the period, overall 136 Air Traffic Movements (ATMs) were recorded by KIA, which had 101 International and 35 domestic ones, bringing in Covid-19 related cargo. This constitutes 21 different carriers (7 Indian and 14 international carriers ) where Wuhan and Singapore had the top importing regions.
The International cargo included oxygen concentrators, ventilators and zeolite as the major commodities, whereas the domestic inbound cargo had vaccines and PPE kits.
BIAL said the flights bringing in vaccines are assigned the nearest parking stands to the respective terminals to facilitate faster processing.
The shipments comprised 7.8 metric tonnes of cargo having 200 oxygen concentrators from China on a specially chartered Indigo flight allotted for Karnataka state government. Alongside, the airport also processed 150 tonnes of Zeolite, an important component for oxygen generation imported from Rome for DRDO.
