Raimonds Gruntins, IATA's Area Manager for Nordic & Baltic Countries,
Juha Järvinen, Finnair Chief Commercial Officer, Antti Kuusenmaki,
Finnair's VP Head of Cargo, and friends are in the picture celebrating
another air cargo first for Finnair . . .
Cool goes everywhere,
but if you want to use an airline certified “pharma cool”
by IATA there is only one: Finnair Cargo.
And just to make sure it stays out front,
AY began building an advanced cargo transfer facility in Helsinki this
week.
In the early afternoon, under some pretty
serious strato-nimbus cloud cover, a group of people in Helsinki,
Finland, came to dedicate the beginnings of a new, highly specialized
handling facility for pharma and other perishable cargo on June 30. |
 “We
are committed to being at the forefront in the fast growing pharma transport
segment and provide excellent service to our customers,” said Juha
Järvinen, Finnair chief commercial officer. He joined a gathering
of officials and friends of Finnair Cargo earlier this week (June 30)
in Helsinki, Finland, to move toward building a brand-new high-tech handling
facility at Vantaa International Airport that will be known as COOL Nordic
Cargo (CNC).
Too Cool For School
“We are honored to be the first carrier
in the world to complete the IATA pharmaceutical certification process,”
declared Mr. Järvinen. Finnair received IATA's Pharma CEIV certificate
as the first airline in the world to pass IATA’s Center of Excellence
for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (CEIV Pharma).
“Got to be jelly ‘cause jam
don’t shake like that.” One of the high points that really
kept the party going and is worth a listen is the unique and great
Finnair swing band. Truly right! |
The new, state-of-the-art
hub will feature separate temperature-controlled areas for the handling
of pharma products as well as other perishables and foodstuffs.
My Blues
Heaven . . .
Pilots band together, who doesn’t
know that?
But these cats fly for Finnair also
cruise the aerial latitudes as The Finnair Pilots Big Band.
So it’s a cargo gig one day,
and Helsinki to Chicago blue wings & blues music the next. |
Blown away by the Windy City
 The
launch of Chicago service in mid June was part of Finnair’s drive
to strengthen its presence in North America.
At the groundbreaking in Helsinki, Pasi
Nopanen, VP Global Sales Finnair Cargo enthused:
"With the good results of our seasonal
Miami route last winter, we were confident opening this new destination
to round out our daily flights to New York. "Now
after just two weeks in operation I can say with pride that we have been
successful in attracting niches in which we can provide special value
– quick, reliable connections to and from the Nordics, Baltics and
Russia as well as Asian destinations that we can serve with same-day connections.
A big thank you to the forwarding industry in Chicago for their support!
"This seasonal service operates now till 17th
of October, thrice weekly (Monday, Thursday and Saturday).
"We are working hard with our colleagues
from the passenger sales to keep up the good momentum in order to secure
a year round service as soon as possible hopefully starting early summer
next year.
Geoffrey |
