SIA Cargo expands pharma corridors, signs lease with SkyCell

Singapore Airlines (SIA) Cargo has boosted its pharma capabilities with the addition of Amsterdam (AMS) and Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) to its THRUCOOL corridor network. The carrier has also signed a three-year lease agreement with temperature-controlled container provider SkyCell.

Customers will now be able to choose SIA’s THRUCOOL service to transport pharmaceutical shipments from AMS or Zurich (ZRH) to SGN via Singapore (SIN), with end-to-end handling that is compliant with the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma) program. SIA launched the THRUCOOL product in September 2018 on the ZRH-SIN-Sydney (SYD) corridor and plans to expand the network to other key trade lanes in the coming months.

“The expansion of our network of THRUCOOL quality corridors and our new lease partnership with SkyCell further underlines our commitment to providing quality-assured dedicated cold-chain services when transporting time- and temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical shipments,” said Chin Yau Seng, senior vice president of cargo at SIA. “We will continue to expand and strengthen our service offerings, as well as collaborate with our industry partners to pursue innovation in the transportation of pharmaceuticals.”

SkyCell’s air cargo containers are capable of maintaining temperatures of between +2 to +8°C or +15 to +25°C, even under extreme ambient temperatures. Internet of Things (IoT) sensors connected to a data cloud enable real-time quality monitoring.