The new BRUcure taskforce is developing scenarios for the safe storage and transportation of various types of COVID-19 vaccines.
“As Europe’s preferred airport for the transport of temperature-sensitive products, Brussels Airport has been investing for over 10 years in a range of services and products tailored to the needs of the pharmaceutical sector, one of the country’s key industries. We have, together with our community partner Air Cargo Belgium, set up the Taskforce BRUcure specially for the COVID-19 vaccine so that we can guarantee, in partnership with the major vaccine manufacturers, a reliable and rapid transport at our airport”, says Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company.
Our airport not only has the largest number of pharma-certified companies under the IATA CEIV1 programme on its cargo site. With 30,000m² of temperature-controlled areas, it also has the largest number of m² in Europa in first and second-line access to the tarmac to provide refrigerated storage of pharmaceutical products.
Real-time tracking and temperature monitoring
With our digital data-sharing platform BRUcloud, we want to make it possible to track temperature-sensitive shipments in real time and monitor temperatures at any moment in the transport chain.
The BRUcure taskforce is mapping out all possible scenarios for the various types of vaccines in close consultation with the pharmaceutical companies Brussels Airport works with. Each type of vaccine demands a different form of transport, packaging and storage. Some vaccines, for example, have to be shipped on dry ice, while others demand refrigeration at the customary 2-8 degrees Celsius.
Meticulously mapped out
In addition, the manufacturing location of the vaccines, the number of doses per person, the volume that a cargo pallet with vaccines will occupy considering the packaging and so on, are mapped out in different scenarios, so as to be ready to quickly respond once a vaccine is available.
Geert Keirens of Air Cargo Belgium: “The COVID-19 vaccine story yet again shows the strength of Brucargo. Thanks to the community’s extensive experience in transporting vaccines, in particular the Ebola vaccine on dry ice, and the long-standing collaboration, our cargo community can offer a robust logistics platform for importing and exporting all types of COVID-19 vaccines, at the service of public health. In addition, Air Cargo Belgium, thanks to a partnership with the province of Flemish Brabant, is focusing on a community control tower function, whereby COVID-19 vaccine shipments will be continuously monitored at Brucargo.”