Panalpina adds further impetus to pharmaceutical logistics

The new Healthcare and Pharma Center at Luxembourg Airport strengthens Panalpina’s work with international healthcare customers
 
Healthcare is a growing business for Panalpina. The company’s temperature-controlled air freight shipments for healthcare customers have grown exponentially in the past four years. The last nine months saw an increase of 90 per cent in this area. The recently inaugurated Healthcare and Pharma Center of LuxairCARGO at Luxembourg Airport puts Panalpina in a stronger position to further grow its business with temperature sensitive cargo.
 
Global freight forwarding and logistics company Panalpina had been the driving force behind LuxairCargo’s new Healthcare and Pharma Center in Luxembourg. “Panalpina’s foresight and pioneering role in channelling temperature sensitive cargo through Luxembourg made this centre possible. We have invested EUR 4 million into this state-of-the-art facility exclusively dedicated to healthcare,” says Hjoerdis Stahl, Executive Vice-President of LuxairCARGO.
 
The new 3,000 m2 facility was built within the existing Cargo Center that is operated by LuxairCARGO. The fully GDP (Good Distribution Practice) compliant facility is split into two separated main areas. An area of 1,600 m2 with a storage capacity of 1,270 Euro pallets is dedicated to cargo that has to be kept at a controlled room temperature between 15°C and 25°C, while 818 m2 with a storage capacity of 350 pallets is dedicated to cargo that needs to be kept at a temperature between 2°C and 8°C. The build-up areas and even the six truck docks are also temperature-controlled to the respective needs.
 
“We can now handle more cargo safely. Having a purpose-built facility makes it easier to keep our customers’ products within the required temperature ranges during off-loading all the way through to build-up and storage of built units,” says Helmuth Scholz, head of Panalpina’s gateway in Luxembourg. Built-up cargo that is ready to load onto an aircraft is moved to temperature-controlled cells adjacent to the apron. These cells can now hold 70 aircraft pallets (10ft-ULDs), almost twice as many as before.
 
Despite 2012 has been a very difficult year for Panalpina’s air freight division, especially in hi-tech and telecom, healthcare showed continued growth. In 2012, the number of handled files, volumes and gross profit in healthcare all grew by more than 20 per cent. Healthcare shipments made up 9 per cent of Panalpina’s air freight tonnage in 2012, compared to 7 per cent the year before.
 
Matthias Frey, the global head of Panalpina’s own controlled air freight network, sees far more growth potential in healthcare and temperature-controlled shipments.

Quelle: LogEastics

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