In cavernous cold-storage warehouses at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, KLM workers are gearing up for a surge next year in Covid-19 vaccine cargos that will need to be flown around the world at ultra-low temperatures.
A major hub for pharmaceutical products, Schiphol has already handled some of the vaccines being used in trials and KLM's boss is confident its "cold chain" operations will cope with the influx of cargos as mass inoculations start in earnest.
"The short and sweet of it is, yes, we're ready," KLM Chief Executive Pieter Elbers told Reuters.
"Obviously both for societies and our industry it's of paramount importance to have these vaccines distributed at the quickest possible pace."
While no Covid-19 vaccine has yet been approved by US or European regulators, the shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech is the most advanced in the process and could be ready for rapid production and distribution next month.
Strict security
However, it needs to be stored and shipped at minus 70 degrees Celsius while Moderna's candidate has to be kept at minus 20 degrees Celsius — at least until the drugs have reached their destinations where they can survive in normal fridges for short periods.
Allowed behind strict security at Schiphol on Wednesday, Reuters watched Air France-KLM staff prepare four so-called active containers for a shipment of chilled pharmaceuticals bound for Toronto in Canada.
Wearing thick blue gloves, workers topped up dry ice in other active containers, which also have a battery-powered electrical refrigeration system and an array of sensors to ensure products stay within their target range, as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius.
"Schiphol will, for sure, be one of the major airports for the vaccines," said Marcel Kuijn, global head of pharmaceutical logistics for Air France-KLM Cargo.
Pfizer's vaccine is transported at minus 80 degrees Celsius in small cool boxes holding about 5,000 doses which must be kept packed in dry ice until shortly before use. Moderna's candidate is suitable for the larger "active" containers which can take 30,000 doses.
The vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University is stable at normal fridge temperatures of 2 degrees Celsius to 8 degrees Celsius so it has more transport options.
The first ones will probably come in December, January
Mr Kuijn estimated that while vaccines will begin and end their journeys in refrigerated trucks, at least 30 per cent will be flown to their destinations.
Schiphol is the second biggest hub for pharmaceutical products in Europe after Frankfurt so it is expected to be both a staging ground for vaccines from India, Italy or the United States, and a departure point for vaccines made in Europe.
Some other vaccines being developed in China are also stable in normal fridges and Mr Kuijn reckons only a minority of Covid-19 shots will need to be transported frozen.
Mr Kuijn said bottlenecks at Schiphol were unlikely, and while containers would be in high demand, he did not expect shortages as different vaccines will come available at different times.
"The first ones will probably come in December, January, and from there on new vaccines will be approved," he said.
The KLM Cargo warehouse at Schiphol has four cold storage areas for pharmaceuticals and a fifth will be ready in January.
