Lufthansa Cargo has started operations at its new pharmaceutical hub at Hyderabad Airport in India.

The facility has been specifically designed for transporting temperature-sensitive airfreight - particularly pharmaceuticals - from India to the rest of the world.

Plans to develop the airport into a key South Asian hub for the transport of temperature-sensitive pharmaceuticals were announced by Lufthansa Cargo and the operator of Hyderabad Airport, GMR Group, last December.

The first two cold-chain transports from the new pharma hub took off yesterday (25 May) with consignments from the Dr Reddy and Gland Pharma pharmaceutical groups. The temperature-sensitive medicines were transported to Philadelphia and Chicago and via Frankfurt.

Christopher Dehio, senior manager of global key accounts temperature control at Lufthansa Cargo, says: "With the certification of the key stations for cold-chain transport in our network we are strengthening our commitment to transporting temperature-sensitive shipments,"

"In parallel to the certification process, we are further expanding our own fleet of cold-chain containers in Hyderabad."