AirBridgeCargo Airlines and Belgian startup Sky Fresh have signed a service level agreement on digital procedures for the transportation of time- and temperature-sensitive shipments, particularly pharmaceuticals.

According to ABC, the cooperation relates to cargo acceptance checklists, which were traditionally paper-based and filled in manually during the transportation process. Sky Fresh provides an online web platform to centralize data from all acceptance checklists, with the ability to monitor freight shipment movements at each step of the transportation and to send automated notifications to all supply chain stakeholders.

 “It is not every day we see cutting-edge technologies penetrating into the air cargo industry, which makes Sky Fresh an attractive industry and tech-savvy solution,” said Fedor Novikov, global director of pharma at AirBridgeCargo Airlines. “We foresee it propelling the quality of our abcPharma product, bringing it to the next level by eliminating the potential of human error. With environmental considerations high on the agenda of our company, we will contribute by decreasing the number of paper documents and using digitalization instead. It will definitely make the whole process of transportation more transparent, customized and accurate.”

Users will be able to complete the checklists via a mobile application on their smartphone or tablet. All corresponding real-time data is visible on the Sky Fresh Web platform, accessible in any browser.

The collaboration offers a high level of customization, transparency of operations, traceability, efficiency and the possibility to take corrective and preventive actions, if needed.

“For the first time, Sky Fresh will closely cooperate with ABC,” said Fen Lasseel, business development manager at Sky Fresh. “Together, we want to create a digital mindset in the air freight industry, not only through efficiency gains but also by providing real-time data to support strategic decisions and proof of the excellence of ABC.”

ABC recorded a 153% year-over-year growth in the volume of pharmaceuticals carried, its highest ever growth. The airline received its CEIV Pharma certification from the International Air Transport Association at the end of 2016 and Envirotainer QEP accreditation for certain online stations in 2017.