Alaska Airlines transporting the COVID-19 vaccine.Alaska Airlines
- Alaska Airlines and Singapore Airlines were tasked with transporting the vaccine to their geographically-challenged homelands.
- The first doses arrived in remote Alaskan communities less than three days after the first trucks left Kalamazoo, Michigan while Singapore became the first country to receive the vaccine one week later.
- Passenger airlines and cargo carriers alike have been essential in getting the vaccine to the world's furthest reaches.
The first doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine left Kalamazoo, Michigan on December 13 and within days, even the most remote locales were able to begin inoculations thanks to the coordinated efforts of freight forwarders, shippers, airlines, and even law enforcement agencies.
Cargo carriers UPS Airlines and FedEx Express had the honor of flying the first doses from Michigan but passenger airlines also proved to be an integral part of the aerial vaccine distribution network. United Airlines, for example, flew the first US doses in from Belgium shortly after Thanksgiving, weeks before the Food and Drug Administration gave the drug its OK.
Read more: 6 cargo airlines and freight operators poised to win big as Moderna follows Pfizer toward FDA approval for its COVID-19 vaccine
Singapore Airlines and Alaska Airlines have also been tasked with flying the vaccine but both have a more unique mandate of delivering the pandemic-ending drugs to their homelands. Both Singapore and Alaska are about as far from Pfizer's plants in Brussels and Michigan as one can get, making air travel the only viable option.
But geography notwithstanding, the two regions were able to receive their first doses of Pfizer's landmark vaccine within days of its emergency authorization thanks to their respective airlines.
Here's how they did it.