b'20American Journal of Transportation ajot.comAIR C ARGOAIR CARGONEWSNEWSUPS expects 40% jump in vaccine doses,CMA CGM AIR CARGO to peak in May make first flight March 8 UnitedParcelServiceInc.from Liege to Chicagoand FedEx Corp. are ramping up vaccine distribution, with plans for additional gains if Johnson &TheCMACGMGroup,benefiting from a number of inter-Johnsons inoculation is clearedaworldleaderinshippingandmodal transportation options: air, by U.S. regulators. logistics, announces that its newshipping, road and rail.Thecouriersarehandlingspecialist air freight division CMAt woS peCIalIStS Ina Irabout 10 million does a week onCGM AIRCARGOistobegin a combined basis and that numberoperations starting March 8 withF reIgHt tom arketCma is set to climb to 14 million nextthe first Airbus A330-200F cargoCgm aIr Cargo SS vS .week,saidWesWheeler,chiefflight between Liege and Chicago. The CMA CGM Group has of UPSs health care unit. Thatdecided to rely on the expertise doesntincludetheJohnson&l Iege -C HICago , F IrSt of two European companies to Johnsonsingle-shotvaccine,r egularr oute market its services and operate which hasnt yet been granted anCMA CGM AIR CARGOsits aircraft.emergency use authorization butfirstAirbusA330-200FwillECS Group, a leading GSA, has been found by U.S. regulatorsbegin regular commercial oper- will be in charge of marketing CMA to be safe and effective. ations from Liege, Belgium, toCGM AIR CARGOs services.PeakvaccinedistributionChicago, United States. It will beTheCMACGMGroup willprobablyoccurinMayUPS has invested in freezer farms in Louisville, Kentucky joined on March 16 by a secondhasalsodecidedtodevelopa when other manufacturers, suchAirbus A330-200F that will alsoblockedspaceagreementon as Novavax Inc., begin to shipemployees have taken it person- said. The disruptions lasted onlyserve the U.S. market, doublingboard its aircraft with its subsid-theirproducts,Wheelersaid.ally,saidDonColleran,chiefafewdaysandthedistributionthe total offered capacity. iary CEVA Logistics.Thevolumenowisaboutaofthecompanysovernighteffort is now caught up, he said.CMA CGM has chosen AirXavier Eiglier, Director of third of the expected peak levelExpress unit. Thomas Gregory,Indeed,storm-relateddisruptionsBelgium and Liege airport as theCMA CGM AIR CARGO, com-andtheresplentyofcapac- a pilot who was stricken withappear to be easing, according tostrategic base for its operations ments:ThelaunchofCMA ity to handle the surge, he said.COVID-19andrecovered,Bloombergs Vaccine Tracker. CMACGM AIRCARGOCGM AIRCARGOrepresents EvenwhenUPSreachestheflew the first vaccine shipmentwill rely on the expertise of Aira significant event in developing maximum distribution level, theinDecembertoFedExshubF reezerF armS Belgium to operate the aircrafta comprehensive range of logis-company estimates that vaccinesinMemphis,Tennessee.NowUPSinvestedinfreezerinitsfleet.Thisdynamicair- tics services for the CMA CGM will account for about 6% of thethecompanyisgearinguptofarmsinLouisville,Kentucky,line has a recognized air freightGroupsclients.Theseinitial 24.7 million packages it deliversinclude the Johnson & Johnsonand the Netherlands to help man- transportation team. destinations in the United States worldwide every day. shot in its network. ufacturers store vaccines. So far,CMA CGMs Airbus A330- demonstrate our desire to offer WemadesurethatevenItsabigdealforus,those havent been needed as the200Fs will be based at Liege, oneourclientsinternationalcover-during the peak periods that weColleran said. Were ready forModernaandPfizerproductsof Europes busiest freight hubs,age, serving the biggest freight would have enough capacity inthisadditionalvaccineandanyflow steadily from the factory tostrategicallylocatedintheheartairportsintheheartofmajor our network to be able to priori- that follow. the point of use in an average ofof a large population center andeconomic areas.tize all vaccines, Wheeler saidWiththeBidenadminis- 20 hours.in an interview. tration, little has changed fromThatgivesyouanidea the logistics team that has beenofhowsmoothlythishasall d IStrIbutIonp oIntS planningthevaccinerolloutgonebecausethecontingency Deliveriesarealsofanningsince April, Wheeler said. Gus- storagehasnotbeenneeded, outasthecouriersaddmoretavePerna,aU.S. Armyfour- Wheeler said.pharmacy chains and the Federalstargeneral,continuestoheadBut the so-called cold-chain Emergency Management Agency.up the effort, he said. investmentswontgotowaste Distribution points have climbedTheblastofarcticairthateven if they arent needed much to 100,000 on a combined basisdumpedsnowandiceon Texasfor Covid-19 vaccines. The trend forUPSandFedExfromaboutand other states created some tem- inpharmaceuticalsistoward 14,000 at the beginning. porary bottlenecks, and UPS hadbiologic drugs made with large FedExhasmadevac- to hold some vaccines until inoc- molecules that require refrigera- Dachser USA expands cine distribution a priority andulationsitesreopened,Wheelertion, as opposed to pills. Europe-US Air cargo serviceRespondingtoincreasedable service levels, we launched (EMERGEScontinued fromIt is stored at the Health Minis- Partofhertask,saiddemand for air freight transportour new weekday service, which page 17) trys ultra-cold storage facility inMuoz, was to have a fallback inoptions out of Europe, Dachseris already drawing new custom-coldstorageandtransportation.Santiago about 30 minutes fromher pocket, a plan B, she said,USA, a subsidiary of the globalers, said Andy Frommenwiler, Because the devices are reusable,the airport. When it is ready to beforeverysingleflight,incaselogisticsproviderDachser,isVicePresident,AirFreight, andbecausesomuchinforma- transportedtovariousregions,something goes wrong. On oneexpandingitsdedicated Frank- Dachser USA.tion is traceable, these systems arethe vaccine is partially defrosted,occasion,Muozexplained,afurt-ChicagoaircargoserviceThe new route will be oper-becoming much more cost effec- whichtakesabouteighthours,flight bound for the distant Juanwiththeadditionofasecondated by American Airlines with tive, Herjolfsson maintains. Thatthentrucked,withapoliceFernndezIslandshadtoturnflight, scheduled for the week- B777 / PAX freighters and will reduction in cost means that thisescort, from the cold store backbackjustafewminutesafterdaytocomplimentthecurrentruneveryWednesdayfrom kindofsystemcouldseewiderto the airport. It is loaded ontotakeoff because of an electronicweekendschedule.DachserFrankfurttoChicago.This spread usage in the future, and notaplanejust45minutesbeforesystem failure. Muoz was ableUSA has been successfully oper- additionaldedicatedairfreight just be limited to the most expen- takeoff.Alldocumentationistoshiftthevaccinetoanotherating a dedicated Frankfurt-Chi- optionwillallowformore sive or critical medicines.processedbeforethevaccinesplane that left just an hour later.cago-Frankfurt air cargo servicetransitchoicesasDachsers Itsnotjustaboutship- aretransportedatnormalcoldAll the vials survived. since end of July last year whenextensive network continues to ments.Itsaboutrealtimestorage temperatures.On the day after we spoke,demand for air transport beganexpand, innovate and deliver for inventory movements. Its aboutTheHealthMinistryis12planescarriedvaccinestotoincreaseduetopandemic- its customers.automatically billing your cus- insolechargeofdistribution15differentregions.Thedayrelated supply chain disruption. DachserUSAsexpanded tomers. Theres a whole lot thisandinoculationoncetheplanebefore, one plane set a record,Many of our customers arededicatedflightservicecon-technologycanbringtothereaches its destination. The vac- Muoz said, by carrying 36,000shifting some of their shipmentsnectsitsUScustomerstothe tablewherecompanies,evencines are administered for free bydoses of the Pfizer vaccine. to air freight transport becauseentire European market through largeoneslikePfizerandthetheministryatpublichospitalsMuoz credits a small, cen- oftheuncertaintysurroundingitscomprehensivelandtrans-like, can think about going theand private clinics. The vaccinestralizedairtransportteamthatoceantransportrightnow.AsportnetworkfromFrankfurt. Amazon model. needtobeadministeredwithincoordinateslogisticsnationallyvolumesincrease,ourrecentlyThroughDachsersroadtrans-fivedaysofdefrostingortheyand works closely with the Min- launcheddedicatedFrankfurt- portnetwork,theservicecon-spoil. Each box of vaccine car- istry of Health, the sole supplierChicago air freight service con- nects37Europeancountries (MODELcontinued fromries sophisticated track and traceand domestic distributor of thetinuestoattractclientsandissuch as Germany, Austria, Bene-page 19) sensors that identify location asvaccine. So far, she said, not anowoperatingatfullcapacity.lux, Switzerland, Spain, France, transported by air from Belgium,well as monitor temperatures andsingle dose has been lost to tem- InordertoservethegrowingCzechRepublic,Hungary, with a technical stop in Miami.advise of any adverse spike. perature spikes or spoilage. demand for reliable and predict- Poland, and Slovakia.'