Japan Airlines grows its cargo partnership with WFS in Europe

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Japan Airlines has awarded new online and offline handing contracts to Worldwide Flight Services (WFS) in Europe.

The airline has partnered with WFS in Liege to provide cargo handling and ramp transportation for its new weekly Boeing 747 freighter flight from the Belgian airport to Tokyo. In a separate development, Japan Airlines has also extended its offline handling agreement with WFS at Brussels Airport, which sees WFS working closely with the airline’s cargo GSSA partner, J-Air, to coordinate road transport connections for Japan Airlines’ flights from Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and London.

WFS has also been appointed by Japan Airlines to handle a series of all-cargo flights ex Brussels Airport to Osaka this summer carrying Covid vaccines.

“We are very happy to expand JAL’s European partnership with WFS, which responds well to our requests, such as for the high quality handling of vaccines in Brussels and our requirements for time definite handling of large volumes in Liege,” said Tatsusuke Osakabe, the airline’s Regional Manager Cargo & Mail, France, Spain and Belgium.

Marc Claesen, Senior Vice President Commercial EMEAA at WFS, commented: “Japan Airlines is a highly valued WFS customer, and we are proud to be extending the work we do for the airline in Europe. Our commitment to providing the highest levels of handling and compliance for all pharmaceutical products means we are perfectly placed to support Japan Airlines’ vaccine charter flights. We are also delighted to welcome the airline as a new customer in Liege and to have renewed its offline handling agreement with us in Brussels. This also enables us to continue our close working relationship with our friends at J-Air.”

WFS is handling the vaccine shipments at the dedicated pharma zone in its new 250,000 tonne capacity cargo terminal at Brussels Airport. The GDP-trained WFS team will ensure the integrity of the temperature-controlled shipments is maintained throughout the storage and handling process.

WFS, the world’s largest air cargo handler, has invested heavily to provide specialist pharma facilities for its airline and forwarding clients. This includes 15 dedicated pharma facilities in Amsterdam, Bangkok, Barcelona, Brussels, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Cork, Dublin, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, London, Madrid, Miami, New York JFK, and Paris, which are all either IATA CEIV or Good Distribution Practice (GDP) certified or compliant.

In support of the global Covid vaccination programme, WFS’ Project Coldstream task force is continuing to coordinate the safe and secure handling of shipments across the company’s global network, expediting handling procedures and ensuring the integrity of the vaccines is protected.