Christopher Day, director of business development and innovation at Sonoco ThermoSafe and Yulia Celetaria, global director, pharma, AirBridgeCargo.

AirBridgeCargo (ABC) has signed a leasing agreement for Sonoco ThermoSafe’s active bulk shipping container, the PharmaPort 360. The deal was publicized today at the LogiPharma event in Montreaux, Switzerland.

The addition of the active containers to ABC’s routes will bolster its foothold in the movement of pharmaceutical products. Fedor Novikov, deputy director of products at ABC called the new deal a “quantum leap” for its dedicated pharma service, and said that the airline expects “to ramp up our volumes, as well as to gain interest in our services from new customers.”

In the first quarter of 2019, the Moscow-based carrier’s “abc pharma” team increased its temperature-sensitive, pharmaceutical and medical product volumes by 15%, year-over-year, compared to Q1 of 2018.

ThermoSafe has made its name in passive packaging systems, but its actively cooled PharmaPort product is an exception in its portfolio. The PharmaPort has the ability to maintain an internal environment between 60°C and -40°C and a 72-hour battery life. It also has a digital infrastructure, so shippers are able to track cargo without having to employ a separate, drop-in tracker.

The airline joins a growing list of airlines that are lessees of the containers – most recently, Cargolux, which inked a similar deal with ThermoSafe in March.