Additional AA Cargo widebody targets Puerto Rican pharma

Starting April 4, 2017, American Airlines will add a daily A330-200 widebody flight to its extant twice daily narrow-body scheduled service between San Juan Luis Muñoz Marín Airport (SJU) and Philadelphia International Airport (PHL).

PHL is home to American Airlines Cargo’s dedicated, 25,000-square-foot pharmaceutical facility, making Philly an important node for importing Puerto Rican pharmaceuticals. The Caribbean island accounts for 24 percent of all pharmaceutical and medicine exports from the United States. “Bringing in a daily widebody for this route will give us the opportunity to offer customers more capacity to and from both of these high-demand locations,” said Linda Dreffein, senior manager, AA Cargo Sales – Eastern Division.

AA Cargo recently bolstered its cold chain infrastructure at SJU, allowing the carrier to move more sensitive cold-chain pharmaceutical shipments to export destinations. Last year, AA expanded its cold-chain network with a new, 600-square-foot space in SJU — bringing total cooler space to 1,000 square feet.

The Philly facility has a 6,000-square-foot room for controlled room temperature (CRT) shipments, a 3,000-square-foot space that maintains a cold environment, a deep-freeze area, and a zoned active container management area, with powered charging stations for up to 30 electronically controlled containers.