Emirates Skycargo: Revalidation of pharma certification at Dubai hub

Emirates Skycargo has received a revalidation of the European Union Good Distribution Practices (EU GDP) certification for pharma operations at its hub in Dubai. The annual surveillance audit for the revalidation was conducted by Bureau Veritas, Germany.

The air cargo carrier originally received its EU GDP certification in 2016 for its operations across the Emirates Skycentral cargo terminals at Dubai International Airport and Dubai World Central as well as the 24/7 bonded trucking service connecting the two hubs. This made Emirates Skycargo the operator of the world’s largest multi-airport GDP certified hub with over 8,600 m² of dedicated pharma facilities including the purpose built pharma terminal at Dubai International Airport inaugurated in September 2016.
The carrier’s original GDP certification in 2016 and the subsequent revalidation this year confirm that the carrier has established and maintained its quality management system in line with the requirements of the GDP standard and also underline its commitment to continued high quality and consistency in the levels of service delivery for pharma transport.

One year of Emirates Pharma
September 2017 also marks one year since the launch of Emirates Skycargo’s specialized pharma product- Emirates Pharma. The carrier’s comprehensive range of temperature controlled transport services for temperature sensitive pharmaceutical products offers customers three levels to choose from- Emirates Pharma, Emirates Pharma Plus and Emirates Pharma Active. These levels have been developed based on a requirement mix based on the temperature sensitivity of the product, the packing solution used and the origin/ destination of the shipment.
Emirates Skycargo offers customers a wide range of protection solutions for temperature sensitive pharma. These include a fleet of close to 50 cool dollies dedicated for pharma shipments as well as innovative Emirates White Cover Advanced and Emirates White Cover Xtreme thermal blankets developed in collaboration with DuPont.
In addition, Emirates Skycargo also has agreements with major global container rental service providers such as Csafe, Dokasch, Envirotainer, Skycell and Va-q-tec offering customers the broadest choice when transporting their shipments.

Increase of pharma volumes
Emirates Pharma has been well received by pharma customers across the world and this has resulted in a significant increase in the volumes of pharma carried by the airline across its global network of over 155 destinations. In the one year since the launch of the new pharma product, Emirates Skycargo transported over 51,000 t of pharmaceuticals.
Pharma volumes transported between January and September 2017 grew by over 25% when compared with the same period in 2016. Some of the main types of pharmaceuticals transported include vaccines, medication for diabetes and cancer, and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs).