American Airlines Cargo has launched a new controlled-room-temperature facility targeted at pharmaceutical shipments at its London Heathrow cargo centre.

According to AA Cargo, the new monitored and alarmed room measures 1,700 square feet and can accommodate up to 16 times more standard euro skid pallets at a time compared to the previous room. The standard operating temperature will be set to maintain passive products at +15°C to +25°C.

“This is a tremendous service enhancement for our European customers,” said Andy Cornwell, regional sales manager for northern Europe at AA Cargo. “This new, far larger facility can meet their needs even more effectively now and in the future. And this will be further improved when our COL +2°C to +8°C (+35°F to +46°F) storage for pharma products comes on stream later this summer.”

Both inbound and outbound logistics companies using American’s ExpediteTC service will use the new CRT room. Euro Scan software is used to monitor precise temperatures within the facility and real-time information is provided to AA’s operations team.

The new CRT room adds to more than 150 others across the network and will be of significant value to customers moving specialist pharma traffic between Europe and the US, according to AA Cargo.