The night shift at DHL has gotten busier at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport as workers ship the COVID-19 vaccine to Central and South America.
Across the company, DHL Express has hired thousands of employees and more flights, partly due to the deliveries. All of the vaccine shipment for America is handled through its global hub at CVG.
Deliveries to Mexico began in December. Mike Parra, CEO for America, told WVXU the company had also brought the vaccine to Chile, Costa Rica and Panama. Ten shipments went to Europe and DHL says some were sent to the Middle East.
“So our people there at the Hub (CVG) play a key role in ensuring that the project is obviously unloaded upon arrival according to our standards and the standards that we have agreed to,” he says. “And then the reloading, marking, containerizing and alerting takes place. That is why the team there plays a crucial role in the urgent and timely transport of vaccines.”
He could not estimate the economic impact of the vaccine shipments on DHL. “It is early days what this will mean for us overall in terms of an organization as we are still in a quiet phase. I cannot share financial data on it.” Parra says he will provide more details at a later date.
DHL created 6,000 new jobs across the company and recently purchased eight new 777s, partly due to the additional vaccine delivery business.
“Some of these (777) will be coming through Cincinnati, so we will be adding additional flights and expanding into Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport,” said Parra.
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