BRUSSELS AIRPORT is transforming its pharmaceutical processes to be more transparent and to meet shippers needs with common standards and a licensing process.

From the end of this month, this pharma project will see the airport working with shippers and forwarders for the common standards for good distribution practice. Part of the project will be setting up a licensing process for the whole airfreight chain.Speaking to Air Cargo Week at the sixth Air Cargo China exhibition and trade show, Brussels’ head of cargo, Steven Polmans says: “We will be the first airport in the world with full transparency for cold-chain logistics.” A large part of the project will involve training not only airport staff but the  employees of companies involved in the pharma process. The airport’s authority is to invest in the training, effectively subsidising the cost to participants. Polmans explains that the training will have at least two phases.Brussels has negotiated an agreement with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to involve it and its centre of excellence in the training programme. Polmans expects an announcement about the involvement of IATA in its project in the next few weeks.Describing the pharma training, he adds, “it will be a new standard in pharmaceutical handling training.”