FlyPharma Europe 2022 offered an exciting chance to see Leipzig/Halle Airport (LEJ) in action! FlyPharma attendees were given a look behind the scenes with a site tour on Day 2 of the conference (21 September).
At this exclusive airport site tour, delegates received an overview of Europe’s third largest cargo hub. After being picked up by bus from the conference venue, they were taken to the airport and guided round the large airport area.
At the World Cargo Center (WCC) Christian Biseke, Director Cargo and Logistics of PortGround, welcomed delegates and showed them round the WCC with its cooling facilities.
Attendees left with a good understanding of what cargo handling means at Leipzig/Halle Airport and how it copes with all kinds of temperature-sensitive goods, even as complete aircraft consignments.
About Leipzig/Halle Airport
Leipzig/Halle Airport is Europe’s third-largest air cargo hub that has been showing steady growth and is now handling around 1.6 million tonnes of cargo per year.
LEJ has a 24-hour operating permit for cargo flights and is directly connected to the trans-European motorway and railway networks.
LEJ is DHL’s largest hub anywhere in the world and it is the first regional air cargo centre for Amazon Air in Europe. This makes LEJ one of the most important hubs for express and e-commerce shipments.
Overall, more than 70 cargo airlines fly to the airport and serve a network of routes, which encompasses more than 270 destinations around the globe. The airport handles as many as 1,200 take-offs and landings in the freight traffic business every week.
More than 12,300 people are currently employed at LEJ or at local companies and public authorities based there. This figure includes about 9,500 working in the freight handling, cargo airline, logistics and freight forwarding segments alone.
Airport with CEIV Pharma Certification
Thanks to the fact that its subsidiary PortGround has CEIV Pharma certification, LEJ is able to handle time-critical and temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical shipments round the clock. The subsidiary of Mitteldeutsche Flughafen AG, which specializes in handling aircraft and freight, is also responsible for handling and loading vaccines.
Cool Chain Solution
Three individual temperature-controlled areas are available in the World Cargo Center at LEJ. These can accommodate the complete temperature-sensitive cargo from a Boeing B747F aircraft. The facility has direct access to the apron area and therefore guarantees short transport routes to and from aircraft and trucks.
LEJ’s cooling facilities allow parallel storage of both ULD and pallets containing pharmaceutical items, perishable goods and temperature-sensitive products that may not be exposed to frost or heat during transportation and storage. It is possible to store measuring apparatus and intermediate products for the semiconductor industry without any problems at the WCC too.
The refrigerated warehouse ensures ideal conditions for storing medical products. As a CEIV Pharma-certified facility, it fully complies with international requirements as well as the European Good Distribution Practice (GDP) regulatory guidelines. With three separate temperature controls (between +2°C and 25°C) three different levels of temperatures can be set. Alternatively, all cells can be set to the same temperature level, according to the customer’s requirements. Access checks, video and temperature monitoring guarantee the highest levels of reliability in the warehouse system.