South Korea goes Hybrid – SkyCell and Korean Air announce partnership

We are delighted to announce that SkyCell and Korean Air Cargo have signed an agreement to lease SkyCell’s hybrid containers. The partnership follows SkyCell’s recent launch of a service centre in Seoul and the appointment of Charlie Cho as Business Development Director for Korea as of January 1st.

The partnership comes at a crucial point with the increase in demand for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments this year. Cold-chain maintenance for vaccine transportation is a significant challenge for the global logistics industry, and together SkyCell and Korean Air ensure these lifesaving medicine reach patients timely and in pristine condition.

The Korean pharmaceutical industry has seen rapid growth over the last five years, growing at an annual rate of around 7%, led by locally developed novel therapies and biosimilars – almost three times faster than the manufacturing sector. Exports of Korean pharmaceuticals grew by 11.2% last year to over $5.19 billion. The partnership will meet the growing demand for hybrid containers as safe and sustainable pharma solutions for sensitive and critical drugs such as oncology drugs.

SkyCell’s highly innovative hybrid containers allow pharma companies to optimise supply chains using data to predict and control risk. Using over three-quarters of a billion data-points on factors like temperature, location, and time, it enables SkyCell to be at the highest level of the market with an audited failure rate of less than 0.1 percent while reducing environmental and business costs.

In 2021, Korean Air will continue to work harder to achieve the mission of ‘Excellence in Flight’. In 2019, Korean Air was awarded the IATA Centre of Excellence for Independent Validators (CEIV) Pharma certification. IATA’s ‘CEIV Pharma’ is an international standard that indicates an airline’s capability to manage pharmaceuticals, including the handling procedure, equipment, and facilities. More than 280 checklists are evaluated by validators to authorize the certification. In partnership with SkyCell, Korea Air will continue to meet and exceed, these standards.