December 22, 2020: Qatar Airways Cargo has been awarded the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) certification in pharmaceutical logistics.

Guillaume Halleux, chief officer cargo at Qatar Airways, said, “We are glad to be awarded IATA’s CEIV Pharma certification for our capability in handling pharmaceutical and life science shipments with reliability and efficiency, compliant with international standards. Since we launched the product in 2014, significant investment and enhancements have been made to the QR Pharma product and our world-class hub, which ultimately benefits our customers. The validation by IATA is a milestone achievement and an award for all the hard work done over the past years since the QR Pharma product launch.”

The certification covers Qatar Airways Cargo’s operations, its robust quality management system and supplier management processes in Doha. Qatar Aviation Services Cargo, the airline’s ground handling partner also received the IATA CEIV Pharma certification for its pharma handling and warehouse at Hamad International Airport in the State of Qatar.

Nick Careen, senior vice president, airport, passenger, cargo and security, IATA, said, “The pharmaceutical industry relies heavily on air cargo for its speed and efficiency. We are delighted to recognise Qatar Airways Cargo and Qatar Aviation Services as CEIV Pharma certified in Doha, raising the bar in the industry with a commitment to quality and continuous improvements. I congratulate both on this achievement.”

Along with the cargo warehouse and temperature-controlled sections at Hamad International Airport, its Climate Control Centre was also certified. The state-of-the-art Climate Control Centre is an airside transit facility for pharmaceuticals. It has two temperature-controlled zones operating at both 2 to 8 degrees and 15 to 25 degrees Celsius, with a capacity to hold a total of 156 unit load devices (ULDs) at a time.

The cargo carrier’s QR Pharma volumes have grown by 14.5 percent in 2019 over 2018.

The year 2020 has been a challenging year for the airline; however, Qatar Airways Cargo has been innovative, agile and resilient.

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