PAH finds your bags
Pacific Atlantic
Pacific Atlantic Handling Neil
Lott with Jermain Deas holding
the portable baggage tracking
device along with self service
kiosks which have been
designed to provide the easiest
experience when creating
reports for either delayed or
damaged baggage.
WFS, SWISS WorldCargo pharma deal
JFK first GDP compliant airport facility at Building 66
Worldwide Flight Services
(WFS), the world’s largest
air cargo handler and Swiss
WorldCargo, the air freight division
of Swiss International
Air Lines and one of the industry’s
leading pharma air carriers,
opened New York’s first
GDP (Good Distribution Practice)
compliant pharma facility
after achieving certification
of its Building 66 at JFK
airport.The GDP certification
confirms WFS’ compliance
with World Health Organization
(WHO), IATA, and Parenteral
Drug Association (PDA)
quality standards for handling
pharmaceutical and life science
products, as well as with
Service Level Agreements
signed with individual airline
customers in New York.“As the
leading cargo handler at JFK,
we are proud to be the first
airline handling facility to become
GDP certified, which is
in response to growing customer
demand for high quality,
standardized pharma handling,”
said Michael Simpson,
WFS’ Executive Vice President
Americas, who added: “We
24 AIRPORT VOICE, MAY 2019
will continue to expand our
network of certified facilities,
adding to our current list of
JFK and Miami in the Americas
as well as multiple locations
in Europe.”“We are very
excited that New York’s first
GDP-compliant airline facility
is located at Swiss WorldCargo’s
warehouse,” said Michael
Ganz, Head of Northeast-/
Midwest USA and Canada for
Swiss WorldCargo. “This latest
addition of GDP-compliant
facilities allows us to offer additional
quality corridors to
our pharma and healthcare
customers. The certification
of our boutique-like single-airline
facility in New York further
strengthens our position
as a global quality leader.
He added, “This initiative is
aligned with WFS’ program to
provide coordinated cold chain
handling services which secure
product integrity and ensure
patient safety. Achieving
GDP certification is further
evidence of the company’s ability
to deliver resilient working
procedures and processes, as
well as specialized and dedicated
equipment for the handling
of sensitive temperaturecontrolled
cargo. The features
of the program include a Pharmaceutical
Handling Quality
Manual and Quality Management
System, dedicated cooler
facilities, a Special Products
Manager, as well as providing
a team of fully experienced and
trained personnel. WFS also
invested in a new cooler for the
1,000 sq ft pharma facility at
JFK in support of the GDP requirements.”
Handling (PAH) is
a baggage reclaim
service located in
Terminal One at
JFK Airport which
is home exclusively
to international
flights. PAH services
have been designed
to provide
the most customer
friendly and easiest
experience when
creating reports for
either delayed or
damaged baggage.
The company
has their baggage
repatriation center
located on the arrivals
area of the
terminal, Additionally
it has recently
introduced self service
kiosks which
have been designed
to provide the most
customer friendly
and easiest experience
when creating the required reports
for locating either delayed or
claims for damaged baggage.The kiosks
art easy to use.
They have built-in
scanners and cameras
which are able
to read the passenger’s
information
and take photos of
their damaged bags
with their small onboard
camera. On
completion of the reports,
the kiosks are
set up to either email
or text message the
customers their reports.
Currently,
the system provide
10 languages and
they are working on
providing more languages
in the near
future.
Said Neil Lott,
PAH Executive Director,
“We are
pleased with the
high volume of usage
on the kiosks,
since their implementation
at the end
of March and we project to increase
that usage throughout the summer
season.”
JetBlue Technology
Partners with Vantage
New partnership takes off on innovation
JetBlue Technology Ventures
(JTV), the venture capital subsidiary
of JetBlue Airways, today
announced that Vantage Airport
Group (Vantage), a global
airport investment, development
and management company, will
join its international ecosystem of
travel providers fueling industry
innovation.“In our 25-year history,
Vantage has always embraced different
ways of making airports better,
so this partnership is an important
evolution in our growth as
a company committed to innovation,”
said JetBlue.
The International Partnership
Program was established by JTV in
July 2018 to build a network of likeminded
global partners embracing
startups and applying emerging
technologies within their companies.
The initiative is part of JTV’s mission
to improve the future of travel.
Vantage joins Air New Zealand
as the program’s second partner.
The company will collaborate
with JTV and Air New Zealand to
find opportunities to improve efficiencies
in shared infrastructure
and processes, and enhance the
end-to-end travel journey for customers
around the world. The goal
is to identify startups and implement
innovation that upgrades customer
engagement and experiences
through and within airports.
For Vantage, this partnership
program will connect the company
with the Silicon Valley startup
scene and deal flow to strengthen its
own innovation culture and sourcing.
Vantage has relocated a Director
of Innovation Partnerships to
JTV’s offices in Silicon Valley, to
scout, scope, test and implement
emerging technologies at Vantage’s
network of airports.
Today’s announcement expands
upon the existing relationship between
JetBlue Airways and Vantage
Airport Group. In March 2018,
JetBlue selected Vantage and RXR
Realty as its development partners
for the airline’s proposed multibillion
dollar terminal expansion at
John F. Kennedy International Airport
(JFK).
Pictured from left to right: Joe Palermo, General Manager Blg 66 JFK, Rinzing Wangyal, VP of Business Planning,
WFS, Tameika Thomas, Special Products Manager, WFS, Kathy Roberts, Director Quality and Training, WFS, Michael
Simpson, EVP Americas, WFS, Michael Ganz, Head of Cargo Northeast USA and Canada, Swiss WorldCargo,
Octavian David, Manager, Cargo New York, Swiss WorldCargo, Richard Hoffer, Manager, Indoor Sales and Operations,
New York, Swiss WorldCargo. Photo by Jeff Yapalater