Kuehne+Nagel announced that it has launched regular healthcare charters from Liège to the Americas, Asia, and Africa in a bid to address constraints in terms of airfreight capacity, especially for cargo that requires specialised handling and transportation such as temperature-controlled and GDP-compliant shipments.

The service expands Kuehne+Nagel's Air Logistics services with regular charters, multiple times per week, from the Belgian hub with a fully dedicated Healthcare operation for customers.

The new MedConnex service will also connect Liege with Brussels where the forwarder has a GDP-compliant and temperature-controlled warehouse and direct tarmac access.

"MedConnex combines the capabilities of Kuehne+Nagel Belgium's two Air Logistics hubs. This includes an experienced team at Liège airport, Europe's fifth largest European cargo airport with excellent capacity and landing slots, as well as a state-of-the-art building at Brussels Airport equipped with a GDP-compliant and temperature-controlled warehouse, direct tarmac access, and a large stock of special packaging materials," Kuehne+Nagel said.

High demand for healthcare charters

Geert Torfs, Air Logistics director at Kuehne+Nagel BeLux, noted that Europe is a major exporter of healthcare goods, and thus the charters that connect Europe with major continents are in "high demand."

"With this service, we support our entire European network of Kuehne+Nagel colleagues when they need to ship Healthcare products for customers to the rest of the world," Torfs said.

Torsten Wefers, VP of Sales & Marketing at Liège Airport, for his part, welcomed the introduction of the new MedConnex service.

"Liege Airport is delighted about the introduction of these regular healthcare charters of Kuehne+Nagel. We are looking forward to further strengthening our partnership and are fully committed to providing, together with the local handling partners, the best possible framework for Kuehne+Nagel’s own controlled flight program," Wefers said.