United Cargo opens a TempControl Center at Newark, NJ airport

To accommodate its growing capacity for temperature-controlled air freight, United Cargo (Chicago) has opened a temperature-controlled storage facility at Newark Liberty International Airport. The facility has room for up to 48 RKN units (metal-walled, powered pallet containers), with electrical connections to power the RKN batteries. Temperature is kept at a steady 15-25°C, the usual range for storing controlled room-temperature (CRT) products. Freight forwarders or pharma manufacturers can deliver product to the facility; it also serves as temporary storage for RKN units transiting from one aircraft to another.

(pictured on the home page, left to right: United Cargo's Jose Rosado, Jan Krems, and Mary Tussing, Manager of Specialty Sales.)

"United Cargo has several advantages in our Newark hub," said Jose Rosado, senior manager of United cargo operations at Newark, "including our extensive widebody network and our experienced Cargo Sales and Operations teams. But the cool chain business is extremely competitive in New York, and that's one of the main reasons we built this new Center." Jan Krems, United Cargo president, used the occasion to announce the opening of a 56th TempControl facility in United’s network, in Vienna, and to note that similar TempContol storage rooms are planned for other United hubs, including Chicago and San Francisco. (TempControl is the overall brand for United’s dedicated service; only some of the facilities have the CRT storage rooms.)

Last year, United Cargo announced plans for an enhanced “cargo cooperation” agreement with Lufthansa Cargo, as well as an agreement to handle rental of va-Q-tainer units, in a variety of sizes and with working temperature ranges from -50 to +25°C. (Va-Q-tec, based in Wurtzburg, Germany, provides passive [non-powered] pallet containers for the life sciences industry. United Cargo has similar arrangements with CSafe and Envirotainer, the leading providers of powered containers.)