Virgin Atlantic Cargo has become the first UK airline to approve the use of CSafe’s new RAP container for temperature-sensitive life-enhancing healthcare products.

Following its approval by both the US, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the unit has been approved by Virgin Atlantic’s own operations specialists to be carried across the airline’s international network.

The CSafe RAP is the only FAA and EASA-approved active compressor-driven container permitted in both the upper deck and lower deck cargo sections of commercial aircraft.

 

Under the terms of its Master Lease Agreement with CSafe, Virgin is now accepting bookings for the new RAP container, providing customers with another highly cost-efficient solution for large shipments of pharmaceutical and life science products.

 

The carrier already offers customers the opportunity to lease the CSafe RKN container as well as Envirotainer’s RKN t2, RAP t2, RKN e1 and RAP e2 units for temperature-controlled pharma products.

 

The RAP uses a Temperature Management System (TMS) that utilises compressor-driven cooling technology and a radiant heating system (depending on the ambient temperature), in conjunction with CSafe’s ThermoCor.vacuum insulation panel technology. This enables the unit to maintain a strict payload temperature setting throughout transportation, regardless of the actual ambient condition. With a maximum payload weight of 4,819 kg, the  RAP is designed to accept up to four US wooden pallets or five Euro pallets. It can also be bulk loaded directly on the floor of the container to increase payload volume due to the design of the under-floor air recirculation system, and offers an extended battery run time of up to 100 hours for typical shipments.

 

Darren Sherlock, manager – Products and Partnerships at Virgin Atlantic Cargo said:  "With our pharma volumes growing by more than 20 per cent in 2017 and coming just weeks after the opening of our new Pharma Zone at London Heathrow, this latest enhancement to our service offering underlines our commitment to be a leading provider of pharma transportation by offering our customers the widest choice of solutions, supported by the highest levels of customer service.”