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Fraport first company worldwide to be certified by IATA for apron transportation of time-critical and temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals – Award ceremony held at IATA Ground Handling Conference in Doha

FRA/ln – Fraport AG, the owner and operator of Frankfurt Airport (FRA), has received the CEIV Pharma certification from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for ramp handling of pharmaceuticals. Hence, FRA is the largest airport worldwide to have received this certification for the entire handling chain of pharmaceutical products. The CEIV (Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics) certificate is awarded for reliable transport of time-critical and temperature-sensitive products. The global CEIV standard was developed by IATA with the aim of supporting airlines, handling companies and forwarding agents to comply with internationally recognized rules and norms for the handling of pharmaceutical products.

Martin Bien, Senior Executive Vice President of Ground Services at Fraport AG, received the accolade at the IATA Ground Handling Conference in Doha. During the ceremony, Bien said: “With the CEIV Pharma certification from IATA, Frankfurt Airport is one of the largest pharmaceutical hubs in the world to offer a fully certified ground handling process – now with ramp handling also included.”

More than 100,000 metric tons of vaccines, drugs, medicines and other pharmaceutical products were handled at Frankfurt Airport in 2017. The health and wellbeing of many people depends on first-class handling of these sensitive items. Consequently, the standards for this logistical challenge are very high. Meeting them requires quality management, training of all parties involved in the process, and an infrastructure that enables product-specific handling and storage.

Fraport AG’s ramp handling division has been operating a transporter vehicle for temperature-controlled shipments for over 20 years. Now, it is the first ground equipment in the world to be covered by the CEIV certification. The special vehicle allows transportation of main and lower-deck units in a range from -30 to +30 degrees Celsius with pinpoint precision. Moreover, the transporter is equipped with an electronic temperature monitoring system and tracking options.

“We see pharmaceutical transportation as a growth market for the future,” added Martin Bien. “Receiving IATA’s CEIV certification underscores that Fraport has the requisite infrastructure and the necessary expertise to accommodate this growth. We are well prepared for future requirements of the pharmaceutical industry and forwarding companies.”

Fraport introduces TWS, a new telemetry data-optimized maintenance control system

The vehicle fleet at Frankfurt Airport numbers more than 1,500 ground handling vehicles, from on-board power units to airport tugs. They are accompanied by almost 10,000 pieces of towed equipment, like the many types of trailers and freight wagons that speed around the apron. This makes up a huge fleet that has to be controlled, maintained and managed. To help achieve this, Fraport Fleet Management can now call upon an innovative system that transmits telemetry data from the vehicles and equipment to the control center in real time. This means that the current location of a piece of equipment can be established digitally and at glance, together with information on whether all of its key functions are working or whether maintenance will soon be required.

The new system is called TWS, which stands for “Telemetriedaten optimiertes Wartungssteuerungssystem” – telemetry data-optimized maintenance system – and it will catapult Fraport into the future of technology. “We are well ahead of our time. By 2030, systems like this will be optimizing processes at all airports as an integral element of ground handling,” explains Bernhard Scholz, Head of Fleet Management at Ground Services. Today, though, he and his team can count themselves as pioneers. TWS is nothing less than a technical and logistical revolution in fleet management – and the first system of its kind in the world. Scholz: “The road from our first attempts at GPS-based location in 2001 to where we are now has been a long one. Building on the usual GPS to localize location-related data, we added several special features, such as new algorithms, to the software that runs and controls TWS now.”

But a worthwhile one, too. It used to be the case that looking for a certain vehicle was a game of fishing in the dark, while the need for repairs would often come as a surprise or important maintenance would be skipped. TWS brings light into this darkness. So that the system can work, the fleet vehicles first have to be fitted with transponders, which measure and send information on operating hours, the working order of the vehicles and their maintenance status to operations control by GPS. The collected information and geodata for the entire fleet is shown on a digital map of the airport.

“This means that we know about imminent defects long before the loading crew notices that anything is wrong and can respond accordingly with our taskforce. This allows us to proactively initiate regular mainte‧nance in cooperation with the workshops, meaning that TWS also forms the basis of our repair shop control tool,” explains Scholz. Another advantage: All of the vehicles and equipment are kept behind a virtual “geofence.” If a ground power unit leaves the apron area without authorization, this is automatically reported by the system. This allows third-party use to be identified and calculated at all times – which was not previously the case.

All in all, a whole range of plus points with tangible economic benefits. 200 units from the Fraport vehicle fleet have been fitted with transponders to date. All 1,500 pieces of motorized handling equipment used by Ground Services will be successively fitted and connected to TWS. And the system is set to be linked to data from the flight information service before the year is out. The new system offers extensive options for evaluation, meaning it is not only being used by Fleet Management, but is also already proving popular among customers when performing quality assurance as part of airline audits.

With new temperature-controlled special transporters, Frankfurt Airport is expanding its vehicle fleet for temperature-sensitive freight. Around 18 of the vehicles with state-of-the-art technology will be in operation by July, ensuring that the cold chain remains uninterrupted even over longer apron distances, such as between CCS and CCN. This new service will be of particular benefit to the pharmaceutical industry, whose new provisions on the transport of drugs and medicines have been strictly observed in the development of the new refrigerated trailers.

The trailers are suitable for both controlled cooling (to minus 30 degrees Celsius) and controlled heating (to plus 30 degrees Celsius). Temperatures are managed using digital monitoring and a multi-level fail-safe system. This includes three SMS warning messages, a warning siren and a warning light to alert users to fluctuations in the interior temperature. Alongside electronic management, the doors of the rear section have viewing windows to allow sensitive freight to be monitored from outside.

A maximum of around 5,000 kg of sensitive materials can be transported in each of the refrigerated containers with integrated temperature control. One particular advantage for pharma companies like Sanofi, Merck and BASF: Digital freight documents are generated for the entire transportation process, which is particularly important for drugs and medicines. With the new temperature-controlled transporters, Frankfurt Airport is unquestionably positioning itself as the first-choice “pharma airport”.

Water is life – and at the same time a medium, in which bacteria and other micro-organisms that are a hazard to health can multiply quickly. All the water, which is filled by airport staff into the aircraft tanks, must therefore comply with the most stringent requirements. The quantity is considerable: for example in Frankfurt the team from Fraport Ground Services (BVD) fills about 500 planes with approximately 140,000 liters of water every day.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) as the airlines’ umbrella organiza¬tion established the “Drinking Water Quality Pool” for this procedure. Its purpose is to guarantee internationally consistent standards and exchange experiences on training courses on how to ensure that a bacteria-free supply chain is created from the tank to the plane. Such a training course took place at the end of September at Frankfurt Airport. It was organized by Peter Klein, Operation Manager at Fraport Ground Services (BVD) and his colleague Florian Trapp.

Complementing theory and practice
Under the guidance of Peter Westphal (Lufthansa) and Ana Matos (TAP), the eleven airline representatives first learned in the theoretical part what makes filling a tank with perfectly hygienic drinking water more difficult. Subsequently they practiced taking water samples including keeping the correct documentation. The practical part also involved inspecting Fraport’s water hall and a tank procedure on an A380 belonging to Singapore Airlines. All the participants were impressed by the equally comprehensive and smooth-running procedures at Fraport Ground Services. The latter’s faultless work has also been supported by the regular IATA audits on drinking water quality.