Yemisi Izuora
Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) Plc, has reiterated its commitment to continued to serve as the most effective Ground Handling Company in West Africa with the capacity to convey items at specified and required temperature.
With a total of 7 cold rooms and freezers fitted with the latest technology to adapt the required temperature for any cargo, it is safe to say SAHCO PLC is a gateway for temperature sensitive cargo.
With experienced well-trained staff with CEIV certifications to handle pharmaceuticals, SAHCO is positioned to handle the covid-19 vaccine which is expected to be made available to the public soon.
These freezers and cold rooms which can be used as hub for cargo from up to 12 to 15 aircrafts pallets each are equipped with temperature and data loggers which makes it easy for specified logging of the right temperature. The Data loggers captures temperature at all areas individually unlike the conventional cold rooms that takes temperature of everything at once. These Data loggers are closely monitored by trained staff so as to prevent any anomalies in the temperature readings.
The cold storage facility has different temperature that ranges from; +2 degrees Celsius to + 8 degrees Celsius, -2 degrees Celsius to 25 degrees Celsius, +15 degrees Celsius to +25 degrees Celsius, +2 degrees Celsius to +5 degrees Celsius.
Our freezers are below zero degree Celsius while our cold rooms are above zero degree Celsius. SAHCO’s largest cold-room is 118.9square meters and the cubic volume is 630.17 cubic meters while the smallest cold-room is 58.5 square meter and 5.3m high, cubic volume is 310.05 cubic meters. This makes SAHCO the only Ground Handler capable of handling temperature sensitive cargo of this capacity.
In addition, SAHCO provides effective transit Ground Handling Services to client airlines through the company’s ultra-modern transit warehouse which is also equipped with an effective cold-room that regulates perishables at their required specified temperature to avoid denaturing. The transit warehouse is built solely to serve Airlines from West Africa for the purpose of transiting their perishables to Europe through Lagos, Nigeria.
Recently, SAHCO has ordered Cool dollies from one of the best Ground Support Equipment Manufacturer, Bombelli in Italy to help transmit perishables from the aircraft at a constant temperature into the warehouse and maintaining the same temperature while being transmitted into another aircraft to Europe if need be. These Cool Dollies are also self-powered which ensures that there would not be a drop in temperature during the handling of any temperature sensitive cargo especially in the case of pharmaceuticals.
SAHCO is also Certified with RA3 which is a requirement for Ground Handling Companies to be able to ship to Europe and SAHCO is IATA’s Safety Audit for Ground Operations (ISAGO) certified. It is safe to say that SAHCO can be a major hub to export of perishables in West Africa.