Swissport Basel certified for pharma logistics by IATA

IATA has awarded Swissport Cargo Services at Basel’s EuroAirport with the CEIV Pharma certificate for pharmaceutical logistics.

The CEIV regulations guarantee the highest quality and safety standards for the transport of sensitive pharmaceutical products. Swissport’s Basel warehouse is the company's sixth CEIV certified cargo facility.

"We are very pleased to receive the recognition by the CEIV for pharmaceutical logistics services at our state-of-the-art cargo facility in Basel", says Nils Knudsen, chief commercial officer of Swissport International, adding: "The CEIV certification underlines the attractiveness of our services at Switzerland's most modern air freight terminal.”

With annual growth rates of nearly 10% and a total turnover of some 47,000 tonnes in 2017, Basel is one of the most important cargo locations of Swissport.

A spokesperson for the ground handler said: "Since the opening of the warehouse in 2015, Swissport has continued to expand its on-site offering. The facility features 7,500 square metres of temperature-controlled surface, with a temperature range of +15 to +25 degrees Celsius.

"Additionally there are special cooling units for pharmaceuticals ensuring a temperature between +2 and +8 and a unit for goods which require a constant temperature of -20 degrees Celcius.

"Due to an exclusive direct access to the tarmac, Swissport can move pharmaceuticals within an average of two minutes from its temperature-controlled warehouse to the aircraft."

Swissport is investing at other European logistics hubs. In April 2018, the company announced its plan for a large-scale expansion of its cargo infrastructure at Frankfurt airport by signing a long-term lease agreement for a new facility at CargoCity South.

The new custom-built air cargo warehouse will have a surface of around 16,000 square metres, making it the third largest in Swissport`s global network of 133 warehouses.

Swissport International handles 4.7m tonnes of cargo a year on behalf of some 850 client-companies in the aviation sector. 

In mid April this year, Swissport Group announced that it will defer its plans for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on SIX Swiss Exchange.

In a short investor announcement, the ground handler, a subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate HNA, said that it had decided to delay the listing of its shares as a result of current market conditions. It did not give any details on how long it expected the delay to be.

Source: aircargonews