Worldwide Flight Services’ new Pharma Centre at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport has handled its biggest single shipment so far – 34 temperature-controlled containers for customers AirBridgeCargo Airlines and Kuehne + Nagel.
The outbound shipment, which was destined for Beijing, spent 24-48 hours at the Pharma Centre where it was maintained within 2-8 degrees Celsius, before being sent to China on a Boeing 747 freighter.
AirBridgeCargo has been a regular customer of WFS’ IATA CEIV certified Pharma Centre since the €10 million facility opened in the second half of 2019. To confirm compliance with its own requirements, Kuehne + Nagel also conducted its own audit of the Centre before commencing shipments.
WFS’ Pharma Centre is the only dedicated facility at Paris CDG, the second largest air cargo gateway in Europe. The centre offers temperature-controlled warehousing and handling services as well as a transport fleet specifically adapted to guarantee the integrity of pharmaceutical shipments. Already, some 30 airlines and freight forwarders are using the Pharma Centre regularly to support their strict pharma product requirements, and WFS expects the operation to process over 8,000 tonnes of healthcare and life science products in 2020.
Hugo Rodrigues, vice president of cargo in France at WFS, has commented that: “Our decision to invest in this state-of-the-art facility to support our airline and freight forwarder customers, as well as the pharmaceutical industry, has already been validated by the strong demand we are seeing from so many different organisations. This particular shipment for AirBridgeCargo and Kuehne + Nagel was the biggest so far and helped to demonstrate the capabilities of both the facility and our team. With the need for pharma products all over the globe likely to soar in 2020, we will deliver the capacity and quality of service our customers need to ensure the integrity and efficiency of their pharma supply chains.”
