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Apr 27 2020

COVID-19 missions: Over 10 million masks airlifted to Germany using the world's largest transport aircraft

Luxembourg, 27 April 2020 – An AN-225, the largest and heaviest cargo plane in the world, landed this morning at Leipzig Halle airport carrying over 10 million of protective masks as part of Germany's response to COVID-19.

This batch of protective medical supplies was procured by the German government and airlifted from China using the Strategic Airlift International Solution (SALIS). Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, German Defence Minister, was present to welcome the flight.

This is the second mission executed by SALIS in support to Germany. The first one, using an AN-124 aircraft, arrived on26 April. In total, there are three missions scheduled under the SALIS programme that will bring to Germany nearly 25,000,000 of protective masks to help equipping the contingent fighting COVID-19 on the front line.

The SALIS programme, managed by the NATO Support and Procurement Agency, provides its nine participating nations with assured access to up to five AN-124 aircraft within a few days. In addition, the current contract with Antonov Logistics SALIS also provides access to AN-22, AN-225 and IL-76 Chap IV aircraft. This is the first time that the AN-225 aircraft has been used for a COVID-19 mission under the SALIS programme.

The AN-225 aircraft, called 'Mriya' ("dream" in Ukrainian) is the largest and the heaviest cargo aircraft in the world. It rose into the sky for first time in 1988 and into entered commercial service in 2001. Since then it has performed several key missions, beating 242 world records across a 30-year period. The AN-225 is part of SALIS capability since 2013 and has been mainly used by France as part of Operation Serval in Mali.