Aviation
AA TO ADD PHARMA CAPACITY TO AND FROM PUERTO RICO
January 11, 2017

American Airlines will start flying a widebody between Philadelphia and San Juan, Puerto Rico on April 4, 2017.

 

The upgraded flight will be operated daily with an Airbus A330-200 instead of the current Boeing 757-200.

 

According to AA, the new service will provide additional capacity for goods such as pharmaceuticals, mobile phones, medical instruments and aircraft parts.

 

“Bringing in a daily widebody for this route will give us the opportunity to offer customers more capacity to and from both of these high-demand locations,” said Linda Dreffein, senior manager of cargo sales in the eastern division of American Airlines. “Plus, it will hugely benefit us in our ongoing efforts to enhance and evolve our already world class cold-chain programme.”

 

Citing the Puerto Rico Report of 2016, the airline said that Puerto Rico accounted for 24% of all pharmaceutical and medicine exports from the US.

 

AA Cargo’s dedicated pharmaceutical facility at Philadelphia International Airport, which opened in June 2015, will be one of the first locations in the network to achieve the International Air Transport Association’s Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics certification, according to the carrier.

 

The schedule for the widebody flight is as follows.

 

AA2028

PHL 08:20

12:09 SJU

AA1990

SJU 13:10

17:10 PHL