The GDP certification of Building 66 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, standardised pharma handling,” said Michael Simpson, WFS’ Executive Vice President Americas. “We 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 opening of the facility aligns with both WFS’ and Swiss WorldCargo’s values in providing quality services, with the former investing in a new cooler for the 1,000 square foot facility at JFK, in support of the GDP requirements. For Swiss WorldCargo, JFK is an important North America-gateway, with three daily flights from Zurich and Geneva.
WFS has also signed a 15-year lease on a new state- of-the-art, 346,000 square foot cargo terminal at the airport, which will offer improved cargo flows, reduced transfer times, the latest security and screening systems and will house dedicated temperature-controlled facilities pharmaceutical products and perishables cargo when it opens in 2020/21.