Cargolux Airlines is seeing strong pharma traffic on routes Europe to the Midwestern US and back, manager for products, Stavros Evangelakakis (pictured below) says.

He also explains demand into Asia remains high, especially in China and it is also seeing growth in the Middle East and South America.

He says despite growing competition in this segment, Cargolux is growing its pharma tonnage during the first four months of 2017 and the single-digit growth is the result of its “unwavering dedication” to customers and the flexibility and willingness to adapt services and destinations to customer requirements.

Evangelakakis adds: “It also shows that we are on the right track with our strategy. We believe in constantly developing and improving our processes, learning from the past and giving the customer what he expects from us.

“We believe in transparency and honesty towards the customer as another step towards greater collaborative achievements. This would also include saying ‘no’ when we can’t realistically offer what is expected from us.”

Pharma continues to be a vital sector for Cargolux. Evangelakakis says: “Cargolux has invested significant effort into the advancement and development of its CV Pharma product. We have performed an in-depth aircraft thermal analysis and developed air cargo covers with Dupont.

“While we have put a lot of emphasis on passive solutions, we have felt that we needed to step up our game and also offer active solutions.

“We have invested a lot of effort into our service and can offer temperature-controlled RFS that connect to any airport; we have special processes for temperature-controlled cargo on the ground and in the air, at origin and destination and offer complete transparency on the temperature range during the transport.

“These premium services come with a price, of course, but they are accepted and appreciated by our customers who demand the fastest and most reliable solutions.”

Cargolux continues to develop its pharma capabilities and Evangelakakis says it has begun to introduce GDP principles and processes to additional stations and look at its track and trace system as well as future digitalisation of processes “that customers expect”.

Last month, Cargolux penned a partnership with Emirates SkyCargo that will see capacity utilised and routes added between Dubai and Luxembourg and set to boost pharma traffic.

And Evangelakakis says Cargolux Italia remains a “pillar” of the business as is the main carrier of pharma shipments in and out of Italy, as well as countries like Switzerland.

He notes pharma will also be one of the products it offers in its new venture Cargolux China as it has a lot of demand into China, while pharma exports from China are slowly rising.

Evangelakakis is sure pharma growth is here to stay: “We believe this segment will continue to grow and Cargolux has the ability and the will to grow with it.

“At the same time, we focus on the business and customers we already serve and invest in added value for them with constant personal contact and tailor-made solutions.”