Miami International Airport will enter into World Trade Month having recently achieved three major milestones in the growth of its booming pharma hub network.
On April 19, MIA Pharma Hub partner LATAM Cargo became the first airline in America to receive IATA’s Center of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) Pharma certification. Two weeks prior, Swissport Miami became the first cargo handling company at MIA – as well as the first Swissport station in North America – to also earn the CEIV seal of excellence. IATA, the trade association for the world’s airlines that represents some 265 airlines or 83 percent of total air traffic, created the CEIV Pharma Certification Program to certify that pharma products are transported in accordance with global best practices.
Lastly, the Pharma.Aero organization co-founded by MIA and Brussels Airport welcomed an additional eight companies in April, doubling its membership to 16 in one month. The new members include pharmaceutical shippers Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, and Merck Sharp & Dohme, as well as air cargo stakeholders DHL Temperature Management Solutions, Expeditors, EuroAirport Basel, 4Advice and e-CARGOWARE.
“MIA’s growth in the pharma air cargo sector has added new opportunities for business revenue and job creation in our community,” said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez. “We look forward to having an even stronger presence in this global industry, which is one of the fastest-growing in the world.”
To grow the global pharma air cargo industry, MIA and Brussels Airport – the world’s first two IATA-designated pharma freight hubs – partnered to create Pharma.Aero in October 2016. The goal of the association is to be a collaborative group of airport operators, pharma shippers, CEIV-certified cargo communities and other air pharma stakeholders focused on improving pharma handling and quality in the air cargo industry worldwide. The first six members to join Pharma.Aero last year were: Singapore Changi Airport; Sharjah (UAE) International Airport; Chhatrapati Shivaji (Mumbai) International Airport; Brussels Airlines; Singapore Airlines; and Brinks Life Sciences.
“As the first airport in the Western Hemisphere designated by IATA as a pharma hub, and now as home to America’s first airline and first ground handler certified by IATA for pharma transport excellence, we are proud to collaborate with all our hub partners to be the unrivaled Pharma Gateway of the Americas,” said Miami-Dade Aviation Director Emilio T. González. “Pharma trade to and from MIA continues to be a huge growth area for us, most recently surging by 48 percent in value year over year to $4.4 billion in 2016.”
In 2015, MIA was designated by IATA as the first pharma freight hub in the U.S. and the second in the world. MIA was recognized for organizing its pharma logistics providers to undergo IATA’s CEIV Pharma Certification Program. Since 2010, when the total value of pharma shipments at MIA was $1.8 billion, the airport’s pharma trade has grown by 140 percent.
