Cebu Pacific airlifts 1.5 million Sinovac vaccine doses

Aviation Updates Philippines – Philippine low-cost carrier Cebu Pacific Air airlifted 1.5 million doses of Sinovac's CoronaVac COVID-19 vaccines on Friday, the single largest vaccine shipment to the country yet.

Cebu Pacific said the newest shipment of Sinovac vaccines arrived from China via flight 5J-671. The aircraft, an Airbus A330-300 with registry RP-C3347, arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 8:13 am on May 7.

"This large shipment of COVID vaccines with Cebu Pacific brings us closer to our goal of protecting every Filipino as fast as possible," said Sec. Carlito Galvez, Jr., chief implementer of the National Task Force against COVID-19. 

"We are grateful to Cebu Pacific for joining forces with the government to support us in ensuring the success of this vaccine roll-out."

Cebu Pacific said the airline is in full support of the country's COVID-19 vaccination program as it helps ensure these life-saving COVID-19 vaccines are flown safely to the Philippines, and distributed across the rest of the archipelago.

"We are thankful for the continued trust of the Philippine government and the DOH, and restate our intention to support our country's fight against COVID-19 in any way we can. We look forward to picking up more vaccines from across the globe and aid in distributing across our widest domestic network," Alexander Lao, Cebu Pacific Chief Strategy Officer.

READ: Cebu Pacific flies 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China

Last week, Cebu Pacific also flew 500,000 Sinovac doses, its first mission to bring COVID-19 vaccines from an international hub. The new shipment on Friday brings the airline's total to 2.5 million doses flown since March 2021.