Air Cargo Belgium, Brussels Airport’s Covid-19 vaccine taskforce launches readiness label

March 30, 2021: Air Cargo Belgium and Brussels Airport Company’s dedicated Covid-19 vaccine taskforce, BRUcure, has today launched a readiness label that can be used by companies in the taskforce and indicates that a company is fully ready to transport, handle or store the Covid-19 vaccine.

“The label strengthens the image of the taskforce company that is using the label,” said the release.

BRUcure is a taskforce by Air Cargo Belgium and Brussels Airport Company that aims to ensure a safe, reliable and fast transportation of the different Covid-19 vaccines to and from Brussels Airport. This taskforce consists out of 8 different work packages. Within these work packages, the distribution of the vaccines was first of all prepared. Now, with the distribution ongoing, it offers solutions in transparency, SOP, capacity mapping and so on. The BRUcure project is sponsored by the Province of Flemish-Brabant. Currently, 42 organizations and companies are joining the taskforce. There is a SPOC represented by Air Cargo Belgium.

Requirements to obtain the label
• Should a company need to store the vaccine, they have dedicated pharma storage. Based on our exercise, there is approximately 30,000 m² of cold pharma storage at BRUcargo and it seems to increase as some companies are extending their capacity.
• The companies who obtained the label also follow the BRUcure Guideline Document on top of the existing Pharma Handling SOP’s and apply the guidelines that Air Cargo Belgium has created where applicable.
• The companies use the Airside Pharma Transporter (APT) in the procedure. It aims to guarantee there is no temperature deviation for the Covid-19 vaccine shipments.
• The companies intend to implement the digital platform so-called CargoFlow Explorer. It is a digital solution developed by Nallian (invested by BAC) in order to get full visibility for all pharma shipments.

15 firms within taskforce already obtained the label
• Aviapartner Cargo
• Bolloré Logistics
• DHL Global Forwarding
• Dnata
• EFL Global
• Expeditors
• FB Logistics
• Hazgo
• Kuehne + Nagel
• Lufthansa Cargo (Lufthansa, Brussels Airlines, Austrian Airlines)
• Singapore Airlines
• Swissport Cargo Services
• TUI
• United Airlines
• WFS