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Cathay Cargo points to new pharma market opportunities

A trend towards personalised door-to-door pharmaceutical shipments could increase demand for airfreight transportation, finds Cathay Cargo. In the US, personalised door-to-door shipments in some treatment areas are starting to take place. particularly with CGT (cell and gene therapies), noted Toby Griffiths, head of cargo global sales & customer solutions at the airline. "This represents a potentially material industry shift, leading to an even more complex and diverse end-to-end supply chain," said Griffiths in Cathay Cargo's Cargo Pulse newsletter. "With some of these products being high-value and highly time-sensitive, there will always be a requirement of air freight over longer distances." Some medicines have a shelf life of just days, and shipments of such products will depend on express service and precise temperature control. If this trend expands globally, it could increase market opportunities for the air cargo industry and carriers, suggests Griffiths. "If this is starting to happen in the US now, we need to start thinking what it might look like globally in five years," he said. Currently, many pharmaceutical flows originate in Europe and the US. Griffiths points out: "Our brand recognition is stronger in Asia than in these places. But we have a strong pharma product and a robust network behind us." In comparison to use of airfreight for door-to-door pharmaceutical shipments, advances in passive technology, along with cost considerations, have led over the counter pharmaceutical types to shift to ocean freight, pointed out John Lee, regional manager - healthcare vertical, North Asia, for Expeditors. "If we're talking about OTC [over the counter], then this goes by sea mostly," says Lee. "Modal selection is becoming more segmented, with ocean freight supporting certain products, while air remains critical for time- and temperature-sensitive shipments. But if we're looking at innovative, high-end drugs, most will look at air, because a lot of products have a very short shelf life."

Cargo facility to be developed at Harrisburg Airport in US

Transportation-focused real estate and infrastructure investments company Realterm and the Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority (SARAA) have partnered to develop a new cargo facility at Harrisburg International Airport in Pennsylvania, US. The development will deliver up to 105,000 sq ft of first-line cargo space and will sit directly adjacent to the airfield apron, allowing aircraft to park at the building's doors and cargo to move straight from plane to warehouse. There will be eight airside drive-in doors, 40 landside loading dock doors and more than 180 vehicle parking spots. The building will be developed to LEED-certified standards, incorporating skylights, motion-sensor LED lighting, EV-ready infrastructure and an engineered slab capable of supporting specialised cargo needs, including cooler spaces, floor scales and pallet lifts. Harrisburg processed over 55,000 tons of cargo in 2025, according to Airports Council International (ACI) World. "MDT is dedicated to continued cargo growth, and this development is a direct expression of that vision," said Jennifer Carter, senior vice president, airport affairs, Realterm. "The airport's strategic location at the heart of Central Pennsylvania, serving a region that has attracted major investment from global companies, makes MDT the natural choice for operators looking for a competitive advantage in the Mid-Atlantic." "This development represents the strength of our long-standing partnership with SARAA, and we see significant untapped demand at MDT," commented Alexi Lachambre, senior vice president, Investments, Airport Infrastructure, Realterm. "This is a rare opportunity in today's market, a readily developable first-line site served by a newly constructed aircraft ramp in a strategic U.S. distribution location." Timothy Edwards, executive director of the Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority, also added: "MDT recently completed a $60 million expansion of our airside cargo apron and we are truly excited about the partnership with Realterm and the prospect of a new of a state-of-the-art modern air cargo facility which will complement that infrastructure investment." Realterm's recent projects include the $270m Modern Air Cargo Facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport, developed in partnership with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and the Northeast Cargo Campus at O'Hare International Airport, encompassing 900,000 sq ft. In June last year, Realterm announced plans to develop a new air cargo facility at Leipzig/Halle Airport.

The 'data center crackdown' is a logistics story - mostly unnoticed

Key takeaway: Moratoriums, lawsuits, and a federal standoff over xAI's turbines are colliding with the single biggest driver of air cargo demand growth out of Asia. For forwarders, warehouse operators, and carriers, the consequences are becoming impossible to ignore. The AI data center build-out has been treated by most logistics executives as a demand tailwind, a happy byproduct of Big Tech's trillion-dollar arms race. More GPU servers, more high-value freight out of Asia, more charter and widebody capacity soaking ...