Frankfurt Cargo Services (FCS), a subsidiary of Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) has handled   its   first   shipments   of   Covid-19   vaccines   from   German   biotechnology company  BioNTech  as  the  airport  gears  up  to  play  a prominent  role  in  the  global recovery  from  the  coronavirus.  Doses  of  the  vaccine  were  handled  at  FCS’  facility  at Frankfurt’s  CargoCity  Süd  before  being  loaded  into the  cargo  hold  of  a  Royal Jordanian Airlines’ Airbus A319 bound for Amman.

FCS, the largest airline-independent cargo handler at Frankfurt Airport, has been completing its preparations to support Covid vaccine shipments since last year as part of WFS’ Project Coldstream   initiative   to   coordinate   the   group’s   global   response   to   the   anticipated transportation  of  some  16  billion  doses  of  vaccine.  In  Frankfurt,  this  has  included  gaining CEIV  certification  by  IATA  in  September  as  well  as the  Pharma  and  Good  Distribution Practice  (GDP)  certification  by  the  European  Union in  November  respectively  to  ensure compliance with the quality requirements of airlines and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

For  the  vaccine  shipments,  FCS’  dedicated  pharma  handling  personnel  takes  responsibility for  all  the  required  warehouse  processes  from  the  point  of  delivery  to  the  airport,  checking the integrity of packaging, and constantly monitoring the temperature of the consignment to ensure   it   maintained   strict   -70°C   requirements.   Shortened   handover   times   for   ramp transportation to the aircraft were also introduced, allowing doses of the vaccine to remain in FCS’ temperature-controlled pharma storage location until close to the flight departure time.

"FCS prepared early and thoroughly to offer its customers the highest and safest standards for  vaccine  handling.  The  fact  that  the  first  handling  of  a  vaccine  together  with  Royal Jordanian Airlines happened smoothly and quickly confirms our claim to be a highly relevant gateway  between  air  and  land  transport,  especially during  the  Corona  crisis",  says  Claus Wagner, Managing Director of FCS.

WFS  currently  operates  12  dedicated  pharma  facilities  in  Amsterdam,  Barcelona,  Brussels, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Miami, New York JFK, and its €10 million state-of-the-art Pharma Centre at Paris CDG. These facilities are all either IATA CEIV or Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certified or compliant.

Project Coldstream is leveraging all of WFS’ pharma handling capabilities to ensure vaccine shipments are handled quickly, securely and in full compliance with international temperature and quality guidelines. Its service offering includes:

• Dedicated facilities in the heart of airport cargo zones to expedite handling of imports and exports
• Specialist pharma handling teams 
• Ability to manage shipments requiring both +2°C to +8°C and +15°C to +25°C temperature environments, and -20°C in some of our stations.
• Real-time temperature monitoring and temperature excursion alarms 
• Full track and trace capabilities 
• Active temperature-controlled container handling
• Temperature-controlled trucks, trailers and dollies
• Landside and airside acceptance

Source Frankfurt Cargo Services