Geodis has been commissioned by the French government to organise the emergency supplies of millions of medical face masks from China to France.

The logistics company is planning 16 flights over the coming weeks with the possibility of being extended into May, which will equate to approximately 2400m3 of capacity weekly.

For this operation GEODIS has chartered two Antonov 124 aircraft, which will operate in rotation between France and China. Antonov aircraft are specially designed for transporting large quantities of cargo.

The first flight alone from Shenzhen contained 8.5 million masks and 1 billion masks are expected to reach France over the next 14 weeks.