Vaccine airfreight requirements overblown, but planning doesn’t go to waste

The airfreight industry spent months scrambling to prepare for the global deployment of COVID-19 vaccines , and shipments have steadily ramped up since beginning in December. The actual deployment has been less intensive than some operators feared, but investments facilitating vaccines today are expected to support increasing pharmaceutical airfreight in years ahead. [caption id="attachment_93861" align="alignright" width="450"] Photo/UPS[/caption] There have been few requirements for facility or process changes from ground handlers or cargo teams, “because vaccines are not very intensive in terms of flying or shipment volumes,” LATAM Cargo CEO Andres Bianchi explained. "The Pfizer container can almost be shipped as general cargo.” While LATAM’s pharma business has grown generally during the pandemic, Bianchi attributed the growth to “part of a longer-term trend and not specifically because of the COVID vaccine.” Other operators have reported similar experiences. Edmonton International Airport (YEG) recently announced an expansion of its cargo facilities , including on-airport cold-storage capacity, but told Air Cargo World that the new project is only the latest in a string of investments in YEG’s cargo infrastructure across many years. Mammen Tharakan, YEG’s director of e-commerce, cargo and aviation real estate, said the airport has always had a “healthy share of overall perishable activity that includes pharmaceuticals.” Tenants utilizing the airport’s cool chain facilities have reported an increase in those shipments during the pandemic, Tharakan said. However, even with Edmonton serving as a vaccine gateway into Northern Canada, cold-storage capabilities have rarely been stretched with current distribution, he said. “Quick movement of the products off-airport is the ideal scenario, what all the stakeholders in the logistics communities are working toward, and we did all we could to help enable that,” Tharakan said. “Ensuring that staging capacity was available, and resiliency was built into the system for those times with inevitable bottlenecks or delays … was important to ensure we maintain the community role going forward.” Perhaps most notably in vaccine distribution preparation, UPS last year invested in two giant freezer farms at its hubs in Louisville, Ky., and the Netherlands, with 600 deep freezers able to hold 48,000 vaccine vials each at super-low temperatures. Due to the speed with which the vaccine shipments have moved through the networks of UPS and other express carriers, those freezers haven’t been utilized in the vaccine rollout. UPS told Air Cargo World that, as has been the case with other operators in the distribution effort, the assets will have strategic value beyond the initial distribution. “UPS does a lot of homework before we invest in any assets, and we have been strategic about how we’ve scaled our freezer operations,” UPS Airlines’ Mike Mangeot, director of strategic communications, told Air Cargo World . “Beyond COVID-19 vaccines, these freezers will be important because of the rapid growth of biologic drugs, many of which are temperature sensitive.” The carriers, airports and forwarders investing in areas that support vaccine distribution are looking ahead to a future that heavily utilizes airfreight for pharmaceutical distribution. “It’s important to understand that the freezers are just one element in our extensive cold-chain operations, which include high-priority express services, temperature-controlled warehousing and ULDs, sensors, special packaging, and our Healthcare Command Center,” said Mangeot. Cargo Facts Asia, taking place April 20-21 as a virtual experience, is the event for exploring opportunity in the Asia-Pacific region. Learn more about the next wave of pharma-focused investment during the live panel discussion, “A New Path Forward for Cool Chain Logistics: Supply Chains Reshaped by COVID-19.” Learn more and register at www.cargofactsasia.com .

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