The International’s Air Transport Association’s (IATA) senior manager for special cargo, Andrea Gruber said the association is looking into anymore potential excellence initiatives like CEIV Pharma.

Speaking at IATA’s Cargo Media Day on 7 December, she explained it is investigating opportunities within air cargo where it can strive for excellence. Possible programmes could include for live animals, high value cargo and the safety of lithium batteries.

Gruber said perishables is another sector where it is evaluating such an initiative like
CEIV as the fresh market is growing, but introducing any comes down to complexity
and compliance of the cargo product.

But she said a perishables excellence programme may be pointless, as the expectation for the quality of perishable products is lower compared to say pharmaceuticals or live animals and the yields are lower.

Gruber explained any initiative launched would be all about meeting the needs of shippers and industry on all levels, and CEIV  itself was driven by both. “If the industry asks us to we will look into it (excellence programme) in order to meet the shippers and industry’s expectations,” she added.

As for CEIV, Gruber said IATA is aiming to grow the number of CEIV certified pharma trade lanes, which she noted is the “the future” as shippers want reliable end-to-end transportation of pharma cargo.

Some she said have been developed in Europe, Asia and to the US.

Gruber also said some airlines and freight forwarders will look to get their entire networks certified, but only where pharma trade lanes were high, noting SDV is looking to get 17 of its stations around the globe certified.

She added 43 companies are now certified at CEIV, 82 are in the process of attaining CEIV and around 99 are in discussion to gain the certficate.