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Handling perishables

Swissport is a key player in the supply chain for temperature-sensitive air freight, investing in cooling infrastructure for perishables, life-saving organs, and pharmaceuticals.

Our state-of-the-art cargo warehouses at pharma hubs like Basel, Brussels and Frankfurt offer advanced end-to-end cooling solutions. This includes specialized cooled truck docks for on and offloading, temperature-controlled warehousing in three ranges (15–25°C, 2–8°C, and -20°C), and cooling containers for transport ensuring temperature–controlled transport on the apron and during loading.

END-TO-END COOLING

  • Temperature controlled warehousing ensures sensitive cargo remains within the required temperature range at all times.
  • At selected locations perishables enter or leave our warehouses via specially cooled truck docks and are moved to an from the aircraft via cooled speed gates.
  • Special refrigerated containers ensure temperature-controlled transport on the apron and during the loading process.

DIGITIZATION & INNOVATION

  • Real time and accurate data about pharma shipments, flights, storage capacity and individual ULDs are available to customers in our cargo portal.

 

KENYA'S FRESH-CUT FLOWER CORRIDOR 

 

Each year, almost 10,000 tons of roses travel from the fields of the Kenyan highlands to Europe via Swissport's industry-leading "flower corridor," an advanced logistics process critical to maintaining freshness.  At the Nairobi cargo center, 400 to 500 tons of cargo, 85 percent of which are fresh flowers, pass through weekly, with volume increasing by over 50 percent before Valentine's Day. The facility, certified by IATA’s CEIV Fresh, ensures the safe handling of these perishables. 

The flowers' journey at Swissport begins with the delivery truck docking at the hermetically sealed gateway that connects to a temperature-controlled warehouse dedicated to perishables. After unloading, they undergo a temperature screening to ensure the cold chain's integrity. Inside the facility, the flowers are assembled onto unit load devices (ULDs), with some undergoing vacuum cooling. Transported to a cold room for aircraft loading, the facility features a 110-pallet interconnected cold room and a vacuum cooler. It rapidly reduces temperatures, with the power to cool two main-deck pallets from 24ºC to 2ºC in 22 minutes, minimizing handling times and ensuring flowers arrive fresh and on time.