Airlines address cold chain demands on the ground

Maintaining the integrity of the cold supply chain is fast-becoming airfreight’s biggest challenge as advances in technology have seen a marked modal shift in perishables transport from air to sea. About 60% of the cargo flown out of South Africa by Emirates SkyCargo to international destinations is perishables. In addition, global demand for high-value perishables such as exotic fruit and seafood, is increasing. As a result, the carrier has introduced several new measures to answer the call for an “unbreakable cold chain”, said Pradeep Kumar, Emirates senior vice president: cargo revenue optimisation and systems. “Many of the challenges of maintaining an unbreakable cold chain take place during transport on the ground at the airports and so we have looked at innovative product enhancement for cold storage handling at our facilities at Dubai World Central’s Al Maktoum International Airport,” said Kumar. One of those products is the LD3 – or ‘white’ – container which has been designed specifically as an intermediate temperature control solution and can be used for shipments requiring from 2-8 degrees celsius and 5-25 degrees celsius, explained Kumar. The airline has also invested in 12 freezer trailers for shipments that need to be moved from different points in the DWC aerotropolis, as well as cool dollies for shorter handling trips between storage and aircraft loading. “We have also introduced an extra thermal layer to our white covers which we place over reefer cargo containers to ensure the temperature is maintained,” commented Kumar. Moving its cargo operations to DWC has also cut down considerably on cargo handling time, which minimises the exposure risk for perishables. The cargo storage and perishables area at the Al Maktoum International Airport has capacity for up to 140 000 tonnes of cargo per annum and has been divided into three different temperature-controlled zones. CAPTION The ‘white container’ at DWC can be used to maintain the temperature of generic healthcare products and food perishables.