The Brussels Airport is accelerating preparations to receive and ship the first COVID-19 vaccines, once it is approved for distribution, the airport said in a statement on Wednesday. 

Brussels Airport handles about 26,4 million passengers and 667,220 tonnes of freight annually

As per their official website, a taskforce at the cargo division of the airport, created by Air Cargo Belgium and Brussels Airport, is working “full force on preparing scenarios” for the import and export of the various types of vaccines in a “safe and efficient way,” the statement said.

The Taskforce BRUcure is preparing itself for “all scenarios for the various types of vaccines in close consultation with the pharmaceutical companies with which Brussels Airport works”.

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Each type of vaccine demands a varied form of transportation, packaging and storage. For example, while some vaccines have to be shipped on dry ice, others demand refrigeration at the customary 2-8 degrees Celsius, the statement added.

“As Europe’s preferred airport for the transport of temperature-sensitive products, Brussels Airport has been investing for over 10 years in a range of services and products tailored to the needs of the pharmaceutical sector, one of the country’s key industries,” said Arnaud Feist, CEO of Brussels Airport Company.

“We have, together with our community partner Air Cargo Belgium, set up the Taskforce BRUcure especially for the Covid-19 vaccine so that we can guarantee, in partnership with the major vaccine manufacturers, reliable and rapid transport at our airport.”

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As per their website, Brussels Airport is one of the largest airports on the continent and handles about 26,4 million passengers and 667,220 tonnes of freight annually. So it’s more than capable to pull off the duty that is being bestowed upon it.

Brussels Airport has the largest number of pharma-certified companies under the IATA CEIV programme on the cargo site.

With 30,000 sqm of temperature-controlled areas, it also has the largest number of sqm in Europe in first and second-line access to the tarmac to provide refrigerated storage of pharmaceutical products.

Lauding their facilities, Geert Keirens, Director of Air Cargo Belgium, said, “Thanks to the community’s extensive experience in transporting vaccines, in particular the Ebola vaccine on dry ice, and the long-standing collaboration, our cargo community can offer a robust logistics platform for importing and exporting all types of COVID-19 vaccines, at the service of public health.”