AIRPORTS ARE ADAPTING TO FORM COMMUNITY AND BUSINESS HUBS

from all over Austria, the surrounding areas, and the wider cargo community. These include forwarders, airlines, handling agents, customs brokers, transport companies and many more from the cargo industry, as well as all air cargo parties from neighbouring Eastern European countries. Those interested in attending should expect a newsletter including details on registration, advertising space and sponsorship.

FlyPharma’s vision

FlyPharma Europe is designed to bring together pharma, biopharma and biotech companies with air cargo and logistics service providers to promote open dialogue and new connections. It aims to provide solutions between stakeholders, with Vienna offering an ideal biopharma logistics location to host industry professionals, foster important conversations and connect delegates from across the world.

FlyPharma Europe’s Conference Director, Angela Heath, said: “This is an exciting time of development and change for Vienna Airport and the Vienna AirportCity. FlyPharma Europe always looks to locations that embody the progress, challenges and opportunities that will be discussed at the conference itself; Vienna is no different. With Austria’s focus on pharma and life science innovation and the Vienna AirportCity’s emphasis on creating a community hub for the cargo industry, Vienna is the ideal location to bring a global representation of pharma and logistics stakeholders into one room. I look forward to presenting the latest edition of FlyPharma Europe to new and regular delegates.”

Pharma.aero expands

FlyPharma Conferences is set to stage its seventh event in Europe, to be held in Vienna AirportCity in October 2023. Aimed at “forward-thinking individuals and businesses in the cargo and pharma sectors”, FlyPharma Europe seeks to connect industry professionals and spark discussions regarding supply chain challenges.

In addition to a two-day conference and networking events, there will be an opportunity for delegates to take an exclusive tour of Vienna Airport. Registration is now open.

Vienna was selected for the latest conference because of the growing presence of Austrian biotechnology and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Over the past 30 years, Vienna has been at the heart of exciting scientific developments and life science research. Organisations such as Vienna BioCenter are making their mark as one of the top biology research centres in Europe with major breakthroughs in epigenetic and DNA research in recent years.

At the same time, Vienna Airport has an outstanding pharma handling facility in its cargo handling centre with cargo route connections to a global customer base. Vienna Airport is a gateway between East and Southeastern Europe, making it an ideal base for product transportation. Furthermore, Vienna Airport is one of the very few airports in Southeast Europe that offers direct end-to-end pharma handling services of this quality. This allows for greater quality control, providing solutions to a number of supply chain challenges.

The Vienna AirportCity is an example of how airports are adapting to form community and business hubs where industry professionals connect, providing a first-class office, conference and cargo space that helps businesses thrive. It is located within walking distance to the passenger terminals: something very few airports can offer.

Wolfgang Scheibenpflug MRICS, senior vice president of Vienna Airport, commented: “Airports of today are more than just a runway. Vienna International Airport has extended the aviation services with a quick growing business platform. We see our job as connecting people, business and culture on both a local and a global level: with that in mind, we are happy to welcome the FlyPharma conference to the Vienna AirportCity. The FlyPharma conference aims to connect the pharma industry with the logistics providers, discussing how to together raise value especially in terms of air freight. This approach fits perfectly with our concept of quality business growth.”

Vienna Cargo Day

Co-located with FlyPharma Europe 2023, and taking place one day prior, Vienna Cargo Day will be held on 9 October 2023 at the Vienna AirportCity, 08:00 to 16:30.

Vienna Cargo Day focuses on the sustainability of all cargo topics at Vienna Airport. Topics including digitisation, cargo news from all over the world, and hydrogen as an alternative fuel are primarily discussed. There will also be breaking news about the new Air Cargo Academy in the Vienna AirportCity revealed.

Vienna is a cargo gateway to Eastern Europe, with many clients

Meanwhile, Brussels-based Pharma.Aero has revealed two European freight operators are the latest companies to join its global community of over 50 life science and MedTech supply chain stakeholders. Dachser and SkyCell are the newest additions to the global life sciences collaborative platform.

Frank Van Gelder, secretary general of Pharma.Aero, welcomes the newest additions: “Pharma.Aero continues to expand its global presence by onboarding two companies with strong development and activity in life science logistics. By including Dachser in our group of full members and SkyCell in the group of associate partners, Pharma. Aero further strengthens its knowledge within the life sciences supply chain and logistics.”

Dachser is a global leader in system logistics, with 379 locations in 41 countries, and some 32,850 employees worldwide. The family-owned company, with headquarters in Germany, can draw on a network of 140 air and sea freight locations, has Pharma CEIV-certified locations on three continents and over 400 GDP-trained LSH (Life Science and Healthcare) specialists.

Netka Hohlfeld, department head LSH Logistics at Dachser, underlines the vision and values Dachser and Pharma.Aero share: “The life sciences and healthcare industry is experiencing an accelerated supply chain transformation; an increased need for efficiency, differentiation and access to new geographies; it is being challenged to enable digital supply chain solutions.

“We at Dachser understand the undertaking and strive to be ready to help navigate the challenges and opportunities of the healthcare landscape through a holistic range of patient-centric, forward-thinking, intelligent healthcare logistics solutions. Dachser aims at being strongly involved in the Pharma.Aero community. With the membership, industry requirements and potential challenges can be thoroughly investigated.”

Sustainability as a core principle

SkyCell is a Swiss-based, award-winning provider of temperature-controlled container solutions with a special focus on serving global pharma companies and sustainability. SkyCell brings together big data, software and hardware to transform an ever-evolving supply chain, to enable a market-leading failure rate of less than 0.1%, whilst also reducing CO2 emissions by almost half. Designed with sustainability as a core principle, SkyCell is climate-neutral today and has committed to the goal of end-to-end net-zero emissions by 2040.

Chiara Venuti, Head of Strategic Partnerships at SkyCell, highlights the importance of collaboration across the industry: “I see this partnership with Pharma.Aero as a great opportunity to champion projects, share information and come together as an industry to create a seamless logistics network for our customers. Our commitment to safe, secure and sustainable temperature-controlled container solutions aligns perfectly with Pharma.Aero’s mission to enhance excellence in the pharma supply chain. We look forward to collaborating with Pharma.Aero and its members to develop industry standards and best practices for the life sciences and MedTech sector,“ added Venuti.