Pharmaceutical Air Charter

Pharmaceutical and biologics shipments carry a handling requirement that most general cargo does not: a defined temperature range that must be maintained continuously from origin to destination, with documented evidence that it was maintained. A charter approach for this category is built around temperature continuity and documentation as the primary planning constraint, with weight and dimensions as secondary factors.

Pharmaceutical shipments generally fall into a small number of temperature bands, each requiring different equipment.

• Ambient / controlled room temperature, typically 15°C to 25°C, often achievable with passive insulated packaging
• Refrigerated, typically 2°C to 8°C, usually requiring active refrigerated containers or a temperature-controlled hold
• Frozen, typically -15°C to -25°C, requiring active freezer units or dry-ice packed containers
• Deep-frozen / cryogenic, for specialised biologics, requiring dedicated cryogenic shippers with defined hold times

Good Distribution Practice (GDP) principles, widely used across the pharmaceutical supply chain, set expectations around continuous temperature control, minimal handling time outside controlled conditions, and full documentation of the chain of custody. Applying these principles to an air charter means minimising ground dwell time at both ends, briefing ground handling crews specifically on the shipment's temperature requirement, and avoiding any transfer that isn't strictly necessary for the mission.

• Minimising time on the tarmac and in transit vehicles outside temperature-controlled conditions
• Continuous data-logger monitoring for the full duration of the shipment, not spot checks
• Documented handover at every custody change, with temperature reading recorded at each point
• Pre-cooling or pre-warming of ground handling equipment and vehicles ahead of the shipment's arrival
• A single-shipper or segregated hold position to avoid temperature variation from unrelated cargo

A temperature excursion is any point where the shipment's logged temperature moves outside the approved range. When this happens, the priority is early detection, immediate corrective action, and clear documentation for the client's quality team to assess whether the product remains viable.

• Continuous logging means an excursion is typically identified in near real time rather than after arrival
• Immediate corrective action, moving the shipment back into controlled conditions as fast as physically possible
• Full excursion report provided to the client, including duration, magnitude and corrective steps taken
• The viability decision always rests with the client's quality or pharmacovigilance team, based on the product's approved stability data

Aviall arranges pharmaceutical and biologics charter between Australian capital cities and into Asia-Pacific health and manufacturing hubs including Singapore and other regional centres, as well as for domestic distribution into regional Australian centres where cool-chain infrastructure at standard freight terminals may be limited.