Emirates SkyCargo has transported over 25 tonnes of vaccines from Milan to Belo Horizonte International Airport in Brazil on a Boeing 777 Freighter.
The Dubai-based freighter carrier said it is the largest shipment of vaccines that it has transported on a single flight and it is also the first time that BH Airport has received such a large shipment of vaccines.
The shipment was equivalent to about 1.8 million doses, and had to be transported in specialised containers to maintain a constant temperature of five degrees Celsisu.
A total of 36 Envirotainer containers – 35 RAP e2 and 1 RKNe1 containers – were loaded on the freighter at Milan, one of the designated airports in Emirates SkyCargo’s pharma corridor programme, which aims to provide supplementary protection for pharma product integrity during air transport.
On arrival at BH Airport, the vaccines were removed from the containers and transported to the temperature controlled storage areas of the airport.
Emirates senior vice president for cargo planning and freighters, Hiran Perera said: “We planned every detail of this charter very carefully with our partners from mid-July to ensure that the vaccines would be delivered carefully to Belo Horizonte airport.”
BH Airport cargo manager, Peter Robbe added: “Negotiations for the arrival of this shipment included the visit of technical professionals who checked the storage conditions of our chambers considered to be the latest generation.
“To take advantage of the potential of the cargo logistics area of the Airport, BH Airport has invested in a new configuration of the Cargo Terminal and has installed two new refrigerated chambers to triple cool chain storage capacity to 3,350 m³.”
On an average, Emirates SkyCargo said it transports about 80,000 pharma shipments every year, varying in size from small clinical trial shipments to pharma charters on freighter aircraft, across its network of over 160 destinations.
Emirates Pharma is the carrier’s range of temperature controlled transport services for pharmaceutical products.
