As the process of covid-19 vaccines seems to accelerate, the question about the transportation is becoming crucial as it needs an extreme savoir faire. Again, for the company, a real logistic challenge is ahead.
In France, in Roissy Charles de Gaule Airport CDG -one of its main hubs- Air France-KLM Cargo is more than ready. Mid November, Anne Rigail, CEO of Air France, announced that Air France-KLM was ready to take part in the transportation of the covid-19 vaccines when they were ready t0 be commercialized. For more than 20 years, Air France has been involved in the transportation of pharmaceutical products. Béatrice Delpuech, Special Product Development Director AF KLM Cargo, reported: “the evolution of the drugs we transport requires a robust and extreme performance in that specific and sensitive transport”. Five years ago, Air France was the first company to get the first certification IATA to transport pharmaceutical products in the hold of the aircrafts via CDG or Amsterdam-Schipol. Vaccines are not only the sensitive products that need a rigorous and extreme care in the process of transportation, but also cancer treatments (which have been multiplied by five for five years), insuline, stem cells.
Envirotainer Active containers
Air France-KLM has collaborated with Envirotainer for more than 20 years. Based in Sweden, Envirotainer -one of the biggest partners of Air France-KLM- elaborates and builds small containers to ensure the transportation and high end protection of hyper-sensitive pharmaceutical products. Envirotainer offers active containers-in their professional term-which are isothermal to maintain and regulate the temperature for the transport of drug products (vaccines, plasma, insuline, oncology) anywhere around the globe on about 280 AF-KLM destinations. Patrick Van de Weghe, Envirotainer Regional Sales Manager France & Belgium, pointed out: “from the origin of the destination to the arrival, we collaborate with Air France-KLM on made to measure, it is like Haute Couture, a complete devoted treatment for the extreme sensitive products when they fly cargo”.
BOEING 777 is getting loaded in CDG
A few months ago, AF-KLM created internal task forces who work very closely with different laboratories, freights, handlers. They are mobilizing all the competences to anticipate the needs as close as possible. In addition to these task forces, at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, The Air Cargo France Association, ACFA, including all cargo operators such as airport platform, freight forwarders, handlers, express operators and airlines, as well as the French state services like the delegation of the Prefecture of Police for the safety and security of Paris airports, The Directorate General of Customs and Excise and French Civil Aviation Authority work closely together. The professional association identifies the main actions to be implemented to ensure that the airport will play an exemplary role in the supply and distribution of future Covid-19 vaccines. Christophe Boucher, Executive Vice President Air France Cargo, pointed: "we are fully committed alongside ACFA and the entire Paris-Charles de Gaulle cargo community to meeting the unprecedented challenge of delivering the Covid-19 vaccines. On the strength of our 30 years’ experience in transporting pharmaceutical products, we have demonstrated our teams’ expertise, and our agility in handling the specificities of these sensitive and priority goods. The quality of the dedicated cold chain infrastructure makes Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport a safe and leading logistics hub for the transport of pharmaceutical products by plane, perfectly adapted to this unprecedented operation."
High-end safety in the transportation of pharmaceutical products
In non covid-19 time, Cargo represents 9% of the turnover of Air France-KLM group; last year it reached 2,153 billion euros. In the last quarter of 2020, the cargo capacity of the Group has been down by 33.3% compared to 2019, primarily driven by the reduction in belly capacity of passenger aircraft partly offset by the increase of the full freighters’ capacity and mini cargo flights (passenger aircraft with only belly capacity commercialized). At Roissy Charles de Gaulle the area of Cargo hangar is the size of twelve soccer fields. Cargo is realized by Air France long-haul aircraft fleet (around 100 planes) which transports passengers and in their holds the cargo merchandise. In addition, Air France owns two 777 Boeing planes all cargo which operate over La Reunion, Africa, Mexico and 6 times per week to Chicago. The Windy City is the biggest air freight hub in the United States. AF-KLM imports and exports perishable products, automobiles, aeronautics, e-commerce, postal service and of course pharmaceutical products. About 100 tons of merchandise per year. Last spring in the middle of Covid-19 crisis, when France was facing a shortage of masks, the French airline company quickly responded to this unprecedented logistic challenge. Air France operated 135 flights exclusively dedicated to masks for 4 months. In total, 800 millions of masks have been repatriated via cargo from China.
Air France Boeing 777 Cargo ready to take off at CDG Paris
The air transportation is the ultimate fastest response in the situation of extreme urgency, as it takes 4-5 months for a container to come back from Asia via marine transportation. AF-KLM Group owns a strategic and strong network via its two airline companies Air France and KLM, but also a notable quality in service with all its partners and obviously with its continuously strong links with laboratories all over the world. The only issue will be to have the good containers at the good place at the right moment.
