AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC) has completed a multi-modal shipment trial for DHL Global Forwarding to deliver healthcare products from Moscow to Miami using an RKN active cargo container in accordance with Good Distribution Practice (GDP) cool chain standards.
For the trial, ABC’s pharma logistics practitioners opted the abcPharma product using an Envirotainer RKN unit, replacing real vaccines with service water in order to test the delivery process at each step of the transportation and monitor the condition of the water.
Together with DHL Global Forwarding Russia, they supplied the RKN unit to the customer’s warehouse and accepted the cargo as a fully built-up unit ready for carriage at its airport warehouse premises, with the teams covering delivery, leasing and guaranteed customs clearance for the customer as well as ensuring a minimum transit time and the elimination of temperature risk.
On 24 November the trial shipment took off on one of ABC’s Boeing 747 Freighters from Moscow on its direct route to Chicago, where it was met by local ABC representatives, who monitored the offloading and ensured the smooth transportation onto a refrigerated truck to take the ‘vaccines’ to Miami.
From Miami, the RKN continued on its journey to Managua, the capital of Nicaragua with another carrier, and though the special container can run on battery power for more than 90 hours and sustain the required temperature range, it was decided to maintain +50C inside the ruck to introduce a second safety measure.
ABC global director for pharma, Fedor Novikov says: “We are proud to be been given this opportunity to demonstrate the quality of the pharma solutions we can provide and to have earned the trust of our customer for the organisation of vaccines transportation.”
“With ABC only developing temperature-sensitive solutions for less than a year, it is a huge achievement to be chosen to provide dedicated lift of healthcare products, which will improve the quality of life for people of the Republic of Nicaragua when we commence the delivery of vaccines in 2018.”
The RKN is a certified air cargo ULD container which ensures the integrity of pharma products by maintaining product temperatures in either +2-8C range, in the controlled room temperature range of +15-25C, or at any chosen set temperature within the operating range of 0-20C.
ABC gained IATA CEIV Pharma certification in 2016 and has since developed special benefits for pharma customers including the Sky Fresh web platform.
The airline gained Envirotainer QEP accreditation at its global hub at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport and in Dallas, with the online stations of Milan, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Los Angeles and Chicago following within two months.
