Emirates opens dedicated pharma facility at Chicago

DUBAI: June 09, 2019. Emirates SkyCargo has opened a 1,000 sq.mt. dedicated pharma facility at Chicago O Hare with temperature controlled zones for acceptance and delivery, pharma cargo build up and break down, storage and direct ramp access.

Developed in partnership with ground handling company Maestro, the facility has a capacity of 15,000 tonnes of pharma shipments per annum.

EK Sky Cargo pharma ORD “Emirates SkyCargo is committed to the safe and secure transportation of temperature sensitive pharmaceutical shipments,” said divisional senior vice president Nabil Sultan. “This was also a unique model wherein we worked closely with the ground handler and were involved in the planning for the facility from the very beginning. Using our learnings from transporting pharma across six continents, we were able to collaborate to make the new pharma facility fit for purpose,” he continued.

Close to the ramp for short transits to and from aircraft, the new Chicago facility offers temperature controlled zones from 2-8 degree Celsius and 15-25 degree Celsius.

With the opening of the pharma facility at O'Hare, Emirates SkyCargo has now expanded its initial network of 12 pharma stations to 20 - following on the success of its pharma corridors initiative announced in January 2018.

“Pharmaceutical cargoes being transported by air are growing in their sophistication and complexity in terms of the strict regulations for handling and temperature control,” explained Henrik Ambak, Emirates senior vice president Cargo Operations Worldwide. “We have been successfully working with our ground handling partners at our major pharma points and the model has met with quite a lot of success and positive feedback from our customers. We’ll continue to look at how pharma flows through our network and add more stations in the future,” he added.

Emirates SkyCargo’s pharma operations in Dubai, including the 24/7 trucking operations between its terminals at Dubai International Airport and Dubai World Central, have been re-certified for this year as compliant to EU GDP (Good Distribution Practices).