Emirates SkyCargo is extending its fully-automated cool room with 94 airline pallet positions at its EU GDP certified dedicated pharma facility at Dubai International Airport.

The extended cool room will provide an additional 2600 square metres of temperature controlled environment (2-25 degrees Celsius) for the storage and handling of vaccines and other pharmaceuticals at Emirates SkyCargo’s purpose built GDP certified facility.

According to the company, the new extension can hold an estimated 60-90 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines at one time.

“Emirates SkyCargo is proud to have flown over 350 tonnes of Covid-19 vaccines around the world, delivering much needed support to communities that are still heavily impacted by the current wave of the pandemic. However, we are always looking ahead and we anticipate that there will be an increase in demand to transport vaccines to developing nations during the second half of the year. Already, we have seen a ramping up of COVID-19 vaccine volumes that were transported over the last few weeks in line with increased manufacturing. We expect to reach the 100 million doses milestone well before the end of this month,” said Emirates Divisional senior vice-president, Cargo, Nabil Sultan.

“The last six months have been a valuable and mutual learning experience for Emirates SkyCargo and as well for pharmaceutical manufacturers and our logistics partners,” he added.

“We have been able to apply these learnings to make the process of vaccine transportation faster and more efficient, providing a valuable boost to the next phase of Covid-19 vaccine transportation, as well as for other temperature sensitive pharma products in the future.”