(earth whooshing)
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] Aviation will play a key role
in transporting groundbreaking vaccines
in the fight against COVID-19.
From the moment the wheels touch down,
it's a race against the clock and the heat,
to get the vital supplies to their final destination safely.
This is the most daunting single logistical challenge ever.
Follow the journey,
follow the aircraft, to the warehouse, to the world.
(dramatic music)
- The Hyderabad flight just landed at Dubai
with the 777 behind me,
and now, they're start to offloading
some very high value pharmaceutical products on board.
- Hyderabad's one of our biggest origin
in the world for pharmaceuticals.
So what we do is have equipment ready behind us
to make sure that we keep the pharmaceuticals
in temperature, from the aircraft to the warehouse.
After the plane just arrived,
and what we can do in our holds, in the aircraft,
the captains can set the temperature.
A notification goes to the captain before the flight,
telling him what cargo is inside the belly hold,
and what temperature to put.
So he sets up temperature of the belly
according to what the pharmaceuticals need to be kept at.
- Well, this is really cool,
this is my first time in the cargo hold of 777.
How many containers here?
- You can even get a different variety
of either AKEs or RFPs,
but in the hold value of this 777-300 ER
we can get 14 pilot positions.
- 14.
- So Sam on here we have an Envirotainer,
these are very specialist and active containers.
You can set them to a specific temperature
and it will keep the pharmaceuticals
or vaccines inside,
at exactly that temperature.
From all the way from the origin,
all the way to the destination.
(dramatic music)
So here we have more active pharma ingredient
coming in on our Hyderabad flight,
you can see in the blue drums.
This is the raw ingredient for all pharmaceuticals.
So it's come straight off the aircraft now,
going into the cool dolly.
This makes sure the temperature is kept absolutely perfect
while it's going from the aircraft to the warehouse.
So 30 minutes, we're complete, the plane is offloaded,
and now Sam, I'll take you back to our pharma facility.
(dramatic music)
- Welcome to SkyPharma,
something you probably haven't seen before.
And see what happens, in the control area.
(lively music)
- I didn't quite understand the whole process
can you share with us?
- From the point of manufacture,
they will contact the freight forwarder,
and give them instruction to move the shipment.
So they will pick up the shipment
from the manufacturing site,
and bring it to the airport,
and they will hand it over to Emirates.
At origin we will then keep it in temperature control,
and then we will load it on the aircraft
at let's say, starting from India.
It will then fly through Dubai.
In general, we bring both pharmaceuticals
in big volume into Dubai.
We bring it in here,
where you bring it into this room,
then we break down a large pallet into smaller shipments.
And then we send those out
to multiple different destinations.
Let's take Chicago.
When the flight then lands in Chicago,
we also have a large Pharma facility in Chicago,
it will come up the aircraft, into the facility,
and then it will get customs cleared
and handed over to the consignee
or the freight forwarder again,
who will take it to the end party
who will be a pharmaceutical distributor.
- So I see that the temperature is gradually cooling down
as we coming inside the hangar.
Outside was 40 30 degrees, and here it's 15 to 25
so we're going to go cooler and cooler as we go, right?
- That's right.
So Sam many pharmaceuticals
and vaccines have to be kept at a really cold temperature.
As an airline, we fly them at two to eight
or 15 to 25 degrees.
This is a passive solution, a passive box.
What this does is it protects the pharmaceuticals
to an even further lower temperature.
So in this room now we're 15 to 25,
but inside here could be two to eight
or could be deep frozen.
- We all heard a vaccine need like
minus 60, 70 degrees Celsius,
so inside could be a lot colder,
exactly what required for transporting vaccine.
- That's right.
- I see a lot of stuff store here,
some of them has a silver thermal cover.
What kind of stuff stores here?
- Okay so everything
in this whole facility is pharmaceuticals.
There are many different types of ways
pharmaceuticals are packaged and covered.
There are different types of covers that are used,
they may be used for reflectivity of the sun
and to keep that temperature.
- What kind of stuff is inside here, the blue container?
- Inside here is a little API active pharma ingredient.
So these are the raw material
that makes up the most pharmaceuticals
that are manufactured.
- This is really cool, I can do this all day long.
Now I'm ready to cool down inside.
(Sam laughs)
This is quite cold now, this is two to eight degrees inside.
If you want to escape the summer in Dubai, 45 degrees
you should come here eight degrees.
(ice cracks and breaks)
(lively music)
- Many of the pharmaceuticals
that we ship have to be kept in this temperature.
For example here we have clinical trials.
They need to be kept at this temperature.
These could be vaccines.
- Oh guys I really like this sign here
it says stay cool,
that's what we are trying to do, right?
- Do you want to know that person?
- That man, that's you.
- Stay cool.
So this is an example of an active container.
As an example the vaccines can be moved to these containers
to maintain the exact temperature
which is required for their transport.
Let's check if the temperature and the batteries are okay.
This the temptale, templogger,
so it measures actually the outside conditions.
These containers can be used from the manufacturer origin
all the way through the supply chain to destination
to make sure that the entirety of the product
is fully controlled.
- That's a very smart, effective way
of shipping like things like vaccines.
- It's a closed (indistinct) chain, fully controlled.
- You can see this active container is back from the flight,
it's already plugged in and it's recharging,
it'll stay here till it's fully charged,
and it will be taken back out to the outbound aircraft.
(lively music)
All the flights are starting to arrive now
and you'll see all the cargo start to come in.
Hey Sam, guess where this comes from.
- I know what you want to say.
Look at the country,
how beautiful they build up the cargo
fit into the field slash height.
This must come from Hong Kong where my hometown,
but everyone in Hong Kong is a Lego master,
they build such beautiful buildups.
- So the morning flights are just starting to arrive,
all the cargo is coming from the flights,
in the background you can see one of our cool dollies,
that's where we protect the pharmaceuticals on the ramp,
again, at a very strict temperature.
We take it out from the cool dollies,
and we bring it right into this facility,
where we break it down and build it up again.
And this here is one of our cool dollies.
We use these on the ramp
to protect the pharmaceuticals
at either again, two to eight or 15 to 25,
the biggest risk to the Pharma air freight supply chain
is actually out on the risk
where it's exposed to extreme temperatures.
So in Dubai when we see our plus 40 degrees in the summer,
as soon as the cargo comes off the aircraft,
we put it in this cool dolly,
and it can be kept at exactly five degrees.
You push that button, you'll turn it on
and you'll see, it's at five degrees.
(machine roaring)
- Oh it just ti=turned on, 5.3 degrees.
Let's go inside, check it out, it must be an ice bar inside.
(door opens)
Henrik, IATA came out
and they mentioned the whole world might need
up to 8,000 Boeing 747 to transport
all the five to 10 billion amount of dose of vaccine.
How are you going to facilitate
all of these vaccine transfer
on top of your daily cargo business?
- Sam I'm not in doubt that everybody will kick in,
and then of course there will be some decisions to be taken.
That there are for a while potentially some commodities
that aren't as important,
if vaccine comes to the forefront,
it's the most important thing to be transported.
You two can take a very simple decision
and say, do we need t-shirts this week
or do we need vaccines this week?
I think the answer gives itself.
- That's a very good point, right?
Your life is the most important.
- So we have one of the only facilities in the world
with own x-ray machine, within the Pharma facility.
So if you take the US for example,
everything needs to be rescreened
before it leaves Dubai to go on a US flight.
We bring the cargo off the flight,
we screen it, through this machine,
keeping it in temperature control.
We then check all the pharmaceuticals
to make sure there's nothing that shouldn't be in there,
and then it goes to the outbound flight.
This is one of the last stages Sam.
This one is now going into the local market.
So it's flown in into Dubai
we port it from the aircraft into the facility,
we've kept it cool,
meanwhile it's been customs cleared,
and now it's been loaded
into the temperature controlled truck
to go to the consignee in Dubai.
(lively muss)
- Julian thank you so much today
showing me the whole process
of transporting pharmaceutical and vaccine,
and I'm sure aviation will play a huge role
to overcome the virus
and together we will succeed.
(dramatic music)
(air whooshing)
(bell dings)