Milano keeps on being one of the primary origins for healthcare products within ABC’s European network and has surpassed the mark of 500 active cooling containers that were shipped to China, Japan, Singapore and beyond in the first 10 months of 2021 aboard over 60 charter and scheduled Boeing 747F flights. Overall ABC Italy has shipped over 1,000 active containers around the globe in 2021 as part of its life-saving operations.
Yulia Celetaria, Global Healthcare Director of Volga-Dnepr Group, highlights: “MXP is one of the stations that has always gone the extra mile to deliver the results. Thanks to the support and forward-thinking approach of MXP airport, our long-standing ground handler, ALHA, we are able to pin Milano on our map of pharma corridors. Active containers are not easy to handle given their recharging process, ramp operations and loading procedures, but together we make it happen and support our customers offering more cargo-friendly solutions to keep uninterrupted supply chains flow”.
Mr. Andrea Battaglia, Special Products Development Manager - Alha Group, comments: “We are delighted to celebrate this milestone with AirBridgeCargo today, a world-leading airline in the transportation of pharmaceuticals. As a service provider for AirBridgeCargo in MXP for the past 12 years, since the start of ABC operations in Milan, Alha has always been committed to building a strong collaboration and making an extra effort to ensure quality, consistency and a high level of service. Over the past two years our collaboration with ABC has strengthened even more: together we have completed extraordinary large-scale pharma operations and, day after day, we manage increasing volumes of healthcare products - so much so that we can now consider Milan MXP as one of the main gateways for the global pharmaceutical supply chain.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the great professionalism of ABC and Alha operations team in Milan Malpensa: maintaining a certain level of quality means always being precise in the preparation of the flight, paying attention to each phase of handling, constantly monitoring the Active Containers during storage and finally following the loading process on the ramp in detail. AirBridgeCargo is definitely raising the bar for pharmaceutical air freight standards: we are very proud to be part of this challenge and every single day we are receiving a strong impulse to grow and do better. Thanks to our common goals, shared vision and quality-oriented mindset we have reached this important achievement as one team.”
Together with other carriers within Volga-Dnepr Group, AirBridgeCargo has demonstrated resilience and adaptability in 2021, adjusting its services to guarantee global vaccine distribution, urgently responding to COVID-19 resurgence in some regions with transportation of oxygen generators or test kits, enabling local vaccine production with deliveries of the oversized production line equipment and, most importantly, offering its customers flights amid capacity constraints to guarantee the availability of vital healthcare products. For the first 10 months of 2021 the company delivered over 36,000 tonnes of healthcare products.
