Pharma.Aero has published ‘White Paper Airport to Airport Pharma Corridor 1.0 Project’ with the objective to achieve excellence in reliable end-to-end air transportation for pharma shippers, by fostering collaboration between CEIV certified airport communities dedicated in developing and pioneering when it comes to handling, storage and air transportation of pharmaceuticals.
In 2019, Brussels Airport Company and Hong Kong International Airport successfully pioneered the protocol of airport-to-airport corridor, by connecting a CEIV Pharma certified airline, Cathay Pacific, and respective cargo handling communities.
Nathan De Valck, head of cargo product and network development at Brussels Airport Company and chairman at Pharma.Aero commented: “The major goal of this project was to investigate and deliver unique assurance in handling quality to pharmaceutical shippers. This project did not only connect CEIV certified air cargo service providers at both ends, it was also the first of its kind to invite leading pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, MSD and Johnson & Johnson to participate”.
There were two major goals identified within the project. The first is to establish a standard protocol for mapping the corridor and the second is to test the mapping protocol on pharmaceutical shipments over the identified corridor.
With shippers setting out stringent key performance indicators (“KPIs”) to evaluate operational parameters, 47 live shipments were monitored and analysed in a dashboard. By achieving zero cases of temperature excursions and over 95% fulfilment for all KPIs, the trial successfully proved that BRUHKG lane consistently adheres to high standards.
“The airport-to-airport Pharma Corridor protocol provided key information to ensure quality assurance is in place to protect product integrity and prevent pharma product loss. Connecting all the dots across a supply chain has never been easy. One of the major outcomes of the corridor was to provide an unprecedented level of transparency to the entire pharmaceutical supply chain. It conferred visibility and insight to industry stakeholders in identifying areas of improvement regarding process and performance,” added Alaina Shumname, general manager, aviation logistics at Hong Kong International Airport.
The initiative will be propagated to other Pharma.Aero member airports to form a network of pharma corridors. Pharma shippers will then have a network to cover their trade lanes which meet their shipping needs.
