Airlines including BA have been paid GBP15m to fly in Covid testing kits from China at short notice amid UK fears of being “gazumped” for the sought-after tests. Disclosures published on New Year’s Eve show that BA earned GBP2.7m for air freight services, as part of a contract awarded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). A further GBP12.35m went to Air Charter Service (ACS), owned by a private equity group, according to five other freshly published contract notices. Documents attached to the contracts, awarded in late November, show BA and ACS were paid to transport lateral flow kits, used to perform rapid tests for Covid-19. An annex to the contract stated: “The supply of these new test kits is currently limited in the face of very high global demand and consequently it was necessary to contract for supply […] for product manufactured in China in order to secure the required quantity of product and prevent gazumping.” DHSC bought the kits on an “ex works” basis, meaning the supplier was not required to take care of transporting the kits to the UK. “Where product has to be sourced on an ex works basis it is imperative that this product is moved at the earliest opportunity to prevent it being sold to higher bidders,” the document said. The six contracts, worth a combined GBP15m, were awarded without competition under special powers that can be used in an emergency such as a pandemic. BA said: “We are proud to have played our part to help during the pandemic by flying more than 12,000 tonnes of medical equipment to where it urgently needed to be.” The airline converted two 777-200 aircraft into freighters by stripping out the seats, and has operated 445 return flights overall since the onset of the pandemic. <br/>
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Qatar Airways ended 2020 by taking delivery of three Boeing 777 freighters, all departing the airframer’s Seattle facility for Doha within about 30min of one another on 31 December. The aircraft – registered A7-BFV, -BFW and -BFX – included the 200th of the type to be handed over to a customer. All 777Fs are powered by General Electric GE90 engines. Qatar Airways, as a result, has 24 of the aircraft in its fleet. It received the twinjets as air freight links remain critical despite air transport’s broader collapse in the wake of the pandemic. “We are injecting more capacity in the market which is very much required,” says Qatar Airways Group chief Akbar Al Baker. “With our investments in innovation and fleet, we are able to fulfil our customers’ logistical requirements and facilitate the continuity of global trade.”<br/>