WFS to build new pharma facility at Copenhagen Airport

State-of-the-art 1,500sqm specialist warehouse follows significant recent growth in life-sciences traffic – up 90%, YoY.

The world’s largest air cargo handler, Worldwide Flight Services (WFS), is to invest in a new, state-of-the-art pharma facility at Copenhagen Airport (CPH) in response to significant recent growth in pharma traffic and “to increase its support of the CPH cargo community’s growth strategy”.

WFS said it will begin construction of the new facility in April. The new building will cover an area of 1,500 sqm and will provide end-to-end handling in a temperature-controlled environment for 2-8°C pharma products incorporating acceptance, offload, pre-storage, build-up and storage.

Accessible through four dedicated cargo doors, the facility will accept loose shipments and pre-built units, offering a storage area large enough for 300 Euro pallets and 30 PMC pallets. WFS expects the construction process to be completed in time for the new building to undergo IATA CEIV Pharma pre-assessment in July.

WFS is also upgrading the existing temperature control areas in its current facility in Copenhagen to handle growing volumes of pharma products requiring a 15-25°C temperature range. This will be the company’s second investment in pharma facilities at the airport in under two years.

Since opening the first stage of its pharma infrastructure in Copenhagen at the end of 2017 – a temperature-controlled ULD storage area with the capacity to handle 16 units – WFS has seen its volume of pharma shipments grow by 90%.

John Batten, EVP Cargo for Europe, Middle East, Africa & Asia (EMEAA), said: “This new investment in Copenhagen reflects our continued commitment to support airport cargo communities with growing pharma volumes. We already have IATA CEIV certified locations in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels, Frankfurt, Madrid and Miami, and we have further investments planned to upgrade our pharma capabilities in other key WFS stations in the year ahead.”

News of the new pharma facility in Copenhagen was announced by the company’s General Manager Scandinavia, Jimi Daniel Hansen, at the launch meeting of the CPH Cargo Community, where over 100 industry representatives, including airlines, freight forwarders and exporters, were invited to hear about the airport’s new cargo strategy as well as the IATA CEIV Pharma and digitisation programmes.

“There is already a fast-growing demand for high quality handling of pharma shipments at Copenhagen Airport. Our commitment to significantly increase our facilities will provide the capacity for future growth and establish Copenhagen as a world class airport for pharma cargoes,” Hansen stated.

The move has also been welcomed by major airlines carrying pharma traffic to and from the Danish airport. Michael Schoop, head of sales and handling for Denmark and Iceland at Lufthansa Cargo commented: “Over the last years, Lufthansa Cargo has invested in its own infrastructure, certification and training and is pleased to offer a broad variety of passive and active cooled pharma air cargo solutions worldwide. To meet our high, certified quality standards on a global level, we are also cooperating with selected local partners and are pleased to work with Worldwide Flight Services in Copenhagen. We appreciate that our customers will benefit from WFS’s investment in a dedicated pharma warehouse at Copenhagen Airport.”

Nete Kilting Staffeldt, Nordic cargo manager at Singapore Airlines, commented: “Singapore Airlines is very pleased about the news regarding WFS’s new pharma facilities in CPH. This will definitely support the ambition to further enhance our pharma product competencies and add value for our customers.”

Source: Lloyd’s