American Airlines Cargo has opened its new Controlled Room Temperature facility at the Heathrow Airport cargo centre.

The 1,700 square foot room can accommodate up to 16 times more standard euro skid pallets than the previous room, providing customers with greater capacity when moving temperature-sensitive healthcare freight to and from Heathrow.

It is a fully monitored and alarmed facility, where the standard operating temperature will be set to maintain passive products at +59°F to +77°F (+15°C to +25°C) and Euro Scan software is used to monitor precise temperatures within the facility, providing real-time information to the American operations team, to be used for reporting purposes.

American Airlines Cargo regional sales manager for Northern Europe, Andy Cornwell says: “This new, far larger facility, can meet their needs even more effectively now and in the future. And this will be further improved when our COL +2°C to +8°C (+35°F to +46°F) storage for pharma products comes on stream later this summer.”

American operates up to 20 flights to the USA a day from Heathrow including two a day to Philadelphia, home to American’s 25,000 square foot pharmaceutical facility.