Air Cargo Community Frankfurt is aiming to make Frankfurt Airport the largest International Air Transport Association (IATA) Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) Pharma certified hub in Europe.

The community are aiming to make Frankfurt the largest certified pharmaceutical gateway in Europe by early 2017. At present, Perishable Center Betriebs and Bollore Logistics Germany in Frankfurt are IATA CEIV Pharma certified and the additional companies embarking on the nine month process include Celebi Cargo, FCS Frankfurt Cargo Services, Lufthansa Cargo (airline and Lufthansa Cargo Cool Center), LUG and Swissport. International airlines and major freight forwarders stationed at Frankfurt are also aiming to become certified.

Air Cargo Community Frankfurt executive director, Joachim von Winning says: “With comprehensive certification of the entire process chain we will have independent confirmation and can recommend Frankfurt as the Pharma-Gateway for Europe.”

“At the same time we also see the certification process as an opportunity to optimise services and processes. In doing so we want to respond even better to the needs and requirements of freight forwarders and pharmaceutical companies.”

IATA global head of cargo, Glyn Hughes says: “We are very pleased to have Frankfurt, as one of the major pharmaceutical hubs, recognise the obvious benefits of the IATA CEIV Pharma-Standards. The collective approach to certify across corporate boundaries and for every relevant part of the process chain cannot be stressed enough.”