AirBridgeCargo Airlines, part of Volga-Dnepr Group, expands its Master Lease Agreement with Sonoco ThermoSafe to enable its customers worldwide to transport life-saving and healthcare products within Pegasus ULD passive container (passive container – ULD capable to maintain internal temperature environment during a certain period of time without charge). The latest Sonoco addition to a sophisticated product family will guarantee secure, trackable, and reliable transportation of temperature-sensitive pharmaceutical shipments of up to 998 kg.

The new ULD has been engineered to create an enhanced cargo operations experience for all the stakeholders with the cutting-edge smart capabilities for data capturing, recording everything from temperature to tilt. Apart from that, Pegasus ULD loads optimally into the cargo airplane, being easily handled and repositioned, which is time- and labour-saving, especially when one deals with pharmaceutical cargo, and maintains the temperature range from +2C till +8C.  

Yulia Celetaria, Global Pharma Director for AirBridgeCargo Airlines, comments: “We are delighted to move one step further together with Sonoco ThermoSafe and introduce this revolutionary ULD to our customers which creates a number of benefits and simplify the operations process. Since 2019, we have been working with Sonoco to guarantee safe and reliable healthcare logistics, which has become of paramount importance this year. Sonoco ThermoSafe has been able to quickly adjust to the market demands and engineer the new Pegasus ULD, which will be highly appreciated by the Life Science and Healthcare community, especially for large volumes of pharmaceutical shipments”.

Bourji Mourad, Director, Global Logistics & Partner Management, Sonoco ThermoSafe – Leasing Services adds: “The inclusion of our Pegasus Passive Unit Load Device to ABC Pharma, will offer our mutual customers peace of mind performance-wise; and a more cost-effective way for transporting life-saving drugs around the globe.”

With over two-fold surge in healthcare shipments which tipped over 40,000 tonnes for the first 8 months of 2020 and the industry prep for COVID-19 vaccines transportation, AirBridgeCargo has been strengthening its relations with container lease providers, expanding the number of passive and active container options for its customers across the globe. On top of this together with Volga-Dnepr Group, it leverages demand for return shipments working under various logistics solutions to position containers back to their original stations, including using charter flight options.