Commercial Airlines Start Shipping COVID Vaccines

The next time you get on a United Airlines flight, it will be you, perhaps a family member, your seatmates and thousands of life-saving vials of medicine.

United is the first domestic commercial airline to begin flying the COVID-19 vaccines across the country in passenger aircraft, carrying Pfizer’s antidote to the coronavirus to a variety of cities, according to CNBC.

The carrier began international shipments on cargo-only flights from Europe last month.

United’s first domestic passenger flights carrying the vaccine went out after federal regulators approved the vaccine on Dec. 11, a United Airlines spokeswoman told CNBC.

“We’re now continuing to meet with our partners to try to lay out a more scheduled flow of the vaccines,” Chris Busch, United’s managing director of cargo, told CNBC in an interview Monday, referring to UPS and FedEx, which are also transporting the vaccines and routinely reach out to commercial airlines for help with large shipments.

Carriers are using Boeing 777 aircraft dedicated solely for air cargo. Each aircraft is capable of holding more than 1 million doses, and United received special approval from the FAA to carry more dry ice than is usually allowed for those flights.

“Domestically, it doesn’t necessarily have to be on a 777. That all depends on the size of the shipment,” Busch said. “If there’s a smaller amount, that could go on really any aircraft type.”

Other airlines are also starting shipments of the vaccine. American Airlines on Sunday flew its first Pfizer vaccines from Chicago to Miami.