Cathay Pacific Cargo announced that it is investing HK$50 million (US$6.4 million) for the development of a large new pharma facility.

The announcement came as the carrier recently rolled out MobiFresh, a solution to help keep shipments cool between flights or before collection through moveable container that offers temperature-controlled storage in the terminal to ensure temperature-sensitive shipments to move though the terminal quickly and safely.

"We are investing HK$50million in a large new pharma facility and we recently rolled out MobiFresh. This is a portable cold storage solution designed to our own specification that offers location and temperature monitoring via IoT (internet of things) technology to maintain the integrity of cold-chain shipments in the terminal," Mark Watts, chief operating officer, Cathay Pacific Services Limited (CPSL) said.

He noted, for example, that it only it takes Cathay less than six minutes to process vaccines coming into Hong Kong, and less than four for transshipments.

Watts said all these are part of Cathay's vision to be the world's most-customer centric cargo terminal services provider.

The Hong Kong-based airline said it is also expanding its footprint into the Greater Bay Area, developing our trucking and intermodal capabilities to further improve connectivity with Hong Kong as well as other projects to boost its digital efforts.

The Greater Bay Area (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area) consists of two Special Administrative Regions Hong Kong and Macao, and nine municipalities — Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Huizhou, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen and Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province.

Fifth wave of Covid in Hong Kong

Meanwhile, the CPSL executive gave an update on Cathay Pacific Cargo's operation amid the onslaught of Covid infections as a fifth wave of the virus pushes the city's capacity to its limits with daily Covid infections topping 34,000 — the highest tally in a day — as of February 28.

"The current fifth wave affecting Hong Kong brings its challenges as the cargo terminal is made up of a large community of stakeholders, including staff, customers, suppliers and Hong Kong Customs officers," Watts said.

Emphasizing on the carrier putting prime on its staff's safety, he added that Cathay Pacific's staff and subcontractors are all fully vaccinated. Its frontline cargo handlers have also been subject to a rigorous testing regime since last year and its operational and customer-facing staff now test every two days.

"I am hugely appreciative of the team's hard work, understanding and commitment to keep the cargo moving despite these additional burdens. So far, there has been no impact to operations and we have maintained the world-beating service levels for which we are renowned," Watts said.

"Once we have navigated the path to recovery, the future looks very bright for CPSL," he added.