Swissport achieves CEIV pharma first for Africa

Swissport has become the first globally operating air cargo handler to receive the CEIV Pharma certification for a facility in Africa.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) awarded Swissport’s warehouse operations at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport with the pharma standard.

“We are very pleased to officially open our latest CEIV certified facility for our customers. The certification by IATA reflects our strategic commitment to superior air cargo handling,” said Jeroen de Clercq, vice president Sub Sahara Africa & Israel and chief executive of Swissport Kenya Limited.

“The CEIV Pharma standard guarantees airfreight customers the highest quality for the transport of sensitive pharmaceutical products.”

Swissport recently invested in a temperature-controlled area at the facility with 208 rack positions and a capacity of 250 tons of pharmaceutical shipments.

The temperature-controlled area accounts for 13% of the total warehouse space of 10,400 sq m.

The dedicated Pharma rooms have temperature ranges of +15 to +25 Celsius as well as +2 to +8 degrees Celsius. Additionally, there is a special cooling unit for goods which require a temperature range of -10 to -20 degrees Celsius.

Nairobi Jomo Kenyatta International Airport saw volumes grow by more than 10% to over 57,000 tons in 2019.

Since the CEIV Pharma certification of Swissport’s facility in Brussels in 2015, the handler’s operations in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Basel, Frankfurt, Helsinki, Madrid, Miami, Montreal and now Nairobi have achieved the standard.

Later in the year, Melbourne, Australia, will be going online with a pharma cooling infrastructure as well.