Fedor Novikov, deputy general director, special products said AirBridgeCargo's pharma volumes have been expanding with a double-digit growth seen in the past eight months.

“Three years ago we became the first airline in Russia to get IATA CEIV Pharma certification, which served as a trigger for further dynamic development of our dedicated ‘abc pharma’ product,” Novikov said.

“Not only have we managed to achieve more than 20% uptick of pharma shipment for the first eight months of 2019 and leveraged around 22,500 tonnes of pharmaceutical products, but we have significantly improved our service quality through continuous personnel training, collaboration with like-minded certified partners, and by following the path of digitalization to achieve higher pharmaceutical handling excellence,” he added.

AirBridgeCargo said for the last five years, it has built its pharma network to support its service, with 18 QEP (Qualified Envirotainer Provider) and six IATA CEIV certified stations.

Apart from reliable partners, the company counts on up-to-date cold-chain special packaging solutions to maintain the required temperature for pharmaceutical products and is cooperating with the leading manufacturers of temperature-controlled containers.

Additional monitoring is also guaranteed by its data loggers, TPED devices, and data-collection equipment embedded in sophisticated containers.

The all-cargo airline also noted that apart from building infrastructure, it is also investing in improving its human resource including proper personnel training.

So far in 2019, AirBridgeCargo said more than 150 specialists have been trained in-house, with 44 of them being from ground handling companies.