The world's largest cargo plane, the Antonov An-225 Mriya, landed at Paris-Vatry airport in the Marne on Sunday, carrying some eight million medical masks on board the Covid-19 epidemic. This plane, coming from Tianjin (China), landed around 11am with on board "150 tonnes of cargo (masks, gloves, charlottes, blouses ...)", said a spokesman for the 'airport.
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The flight is not part of the "airlift" launched between China and France to deal with the coronavirus epidemic, said the spokesman. "It is not a government order, it is a request from a French private company," he said, without giving the name of this company.
"The airport will have processed the arrival of almost 150 million masks"
According to an airport press release, this plane landed for the last time in Vatry in 2014. Its "little brother", the Antonov-124, is expected Sunday afternoon in Vatry with some 10 million on board of masks.
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Since March 30 and the arrival of a cargo plane carrying 8.5 million medical masks, between one and three cargo planes have landed on the tarmac of this airport every day for various customers (French State, local authorities or companies private), said the airport in its press release. These flights come entirely from China. Thus, Sunday evening, "the airport will have processed the arrival of nearly 150 million masks".