The Voyage of the Vaccine, An Odyssey with a Happy Ending

Each week we bring from Brussels --and now also from Amsterdam-- a new shipment of anti-Covid vaccine for Spain's Canary and Balearic Islands. These shipments were not deterred even by the huge snowfall brought by the Filomena storm, thought it was tricky, as is here recounted by Iberia’s Manager for Central European Airports (Brussels, Budapest, Prague, and Vienna), Katerina Steklova.

“Work in airports is always very dynamic, often bordering on the frenetic. But there are days that are much worse than that, like a couple of Mondays ago, on 11 January. It was the day that short- and long-haul flights were restored after the three-day Madrid airport shutdown occasioned by an historic snow storm.

In mid-morning I received an email from my colleagues in IAG Cargo wishing me a happy new year and informing me that we would be loading two pallets of vaccine in Brussels on Iberia flight IB3205 to Madrid.

The flight had the highest priority following all the cancellations over the weekend due to the snow, and it was a very stressful day 

The normal departure time was approaching and the aircraft hadn’t even arrived, so boarding hadn’t begun, and no time for departure had been set. As I suspected, the snow was continuing to wreak havoc to schedules throughout the network. 

The vaccine could travel only in an aircraft with a refrigerated hold, equipped to carry the quantity of dry ice needed to keep it at the manufacturer’s specified temperature of -70ºC. I called Operations Control to see what aircraft they could send, and when. Just then an A320neo was about to land in Madrid, but the situation at the airport was very problematical due to the piles of snow and ice everywhere. Only five aircraft parking spots were in use, and one aircraft couldn’t land until another had taken off. I was running out of fingernails to bite!

I checked my mail and found a message from our sales office here in Brussels notifying me of the maximum priority to be given to our IB3205 flight with the vaccines. They said the entire team was proud of Iberia and of me for getting the flight ready on so little notice and under such difficult conditions. If they only knew...

I don’t know how long it took --probably a few minutes, but it seemed like an eternity-- before Operations Control called to tell me there was an Asturias-Madrid flight that could quickly take off for Brussels. They were ready for it to land in Madrid, but had to wait for the Madrid-Orly flight to take off and make room for it. Time to cross the fingers!

And that’s what happened. In a few minutes they called me again to confirm that the aircraft named Hotel-Unión-Hotel (EC-HUH) would definitely be our plane. It would arrive in Brussels at 23:30 h. and take off for Madrid at 00:15 h. Great! There was six-hour delay from the scheduled departure time but the vaccines would reach Spain, which was the important thing. 

Now we had a plane, so on to the next problem: the Brussels airport closes at midnight. So I called Operations Control to ask for permission to operate after midnight. As I expected, especially in a case like this, the permission was granted. My next call was to the handling department to make sure that personnel would be available at that hour. The response couldn’t have been better. “As far as we’re concerned, we’re ready to work until 01:00 h, or for as long as necessary!” 

At the terminal only three of us now remained, the boarding agent Krum; the passenger supervisor Kefren; and myself. Everybody else could go home to rest.

In Madrid, boarding began at 21:35 h., and at 22:10 h. the aircraft moved to the de-icing platform. The suspense! At last, at 22:29 h., it took off.

Here in Brussels we continued to make calls to ensure that everything was ready, and that our slot --our permission to take off-- wouldn’t be cancelled. Everything was looking OK.

At 00:15 h. we began to check the passengers’ PCR test results and QR codes, in order to speed the actual boarding process.

The aircraft landed. The pallets of vaccines were positioned next to it, ready for loading. I used the microphone to request the passengers to have their papers ready and their passports open to the page with the photo, to respect the calls to board by rows, and to stow their hand luggage as quickly as possible. Their collaboration was flawless –they knew what kind of freight we were carrying and they all wanted to cooperate.

Boarding went very smoothly. But fate had one more challenge up its sleeve. The screen where we have to upload the cargo manifest system was blocked, and it was impossible to send the relevant data to Madrid. After all our work, the spectre of cancellation hovered over us! Oh, please, no!

At 01:34 the manifest arrived. The doors were closed. From the finger we watched the aircraft move slowly away. We felt a huge sense of relief overtook us. Take off took place at 01:38 h. 

It was done. We walked from Gate A57 through the empty terminal, smiling, exhausted, but happy. When we heard the roar of the engines at maximum power, all three of us turned our heads to watch our EC-HUH rising into the air. Spontaneously we all made a great wave with our hands.