IAG Cargo, the air freight division of International Airlines Group, has taken another major step in expanding its global pharmaceutical network.
The company just strengthened its presence in Asia with a new cold chain station in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This is kind of a big deal.
This type of investment shows how the transport of temperature-sensitive products, especially medications and vaccines, has become a strategic priority for the world’s largest air cargo operators.
And there’s more to this story.
While IAG Cargo ramps up its pharmaceutical capacity, another industry giant, Swissport, is celebrating 30 years of operations by going all in on artificial intelligence, automation, and fleet electrification.
These are two companies that, each in their own way, are reshaping what it means to move cargo and people around the world with efficiency and responsibility.
In this article, you’ll see how these moves connect and why they matter so much for the future of aviation. 🚀
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The new cold chain station in Kuala Lumpur
The choice of Kuala Lumpur as the expansion point for IAG Cargo’s pharmaceutical network was no accident. Malaysia holds a strategic geographic position in Southeast Asia, serving as a true logistics corridor between Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. With a new cold chain station operating in the region, the company significantly expands its capacity to transport products that require strict temperature control, ensuring the integrity of these shipments is preserved from start to finish.
The cold chain, for those unfamiliar with the term, is the set of processes that keeps a product within a specific temperature range throughout transportation and storage. It sounds simple, but it’s one of the most complex operations in the air cargo industry. Any variation, even one lasting just a few minutes, can compromise the effectiveness of a medication or render a vaccine completely useless. That’s why having specialized stations at strategic locations makes all the difference for those who depend on these deliveries.
With this new facility, IAG Cargo reinforces its commitment to the healthcare sector and the global pharmaceutical industry. Demand for the transport of medications and hospital supplies has grown significantly in recent years, driven by advances in biological therapies, expanded access to treatments in emerging markets, and the need to distribute immunizations quickly and safely. Having a robust infrastructure in Kuala Lumpur puts the company in a prime position to meet this growing demand across Asia.
Swissport celebrates 30 years with eyes on the future
While IAG Cargo expands its network, it’s worth looking at what another industry leader is doing. Swissport reached its 30th anniversary with a story that goes well beyond the airport tarmac. Founded on August 16, 1996, as Swissair Ground Services International AG, following its legal separation from Swissair, the company started out operating at just three Swiss airports: Zurich, Geneva, and Basel. Today, it serves around 850 airlines at more than 300 airports across 49 countries.
That’s no small feat, right?
What really stands out about this anniversary, though, isn’t just the size the company has reached. It’s the direction it’s heading. With growing investments in artificial intelligence, automation, and fleet electrification, Swissport is redefining what it means to operate on the ground at a modern airport. And the numbers show this bet is paying off.
Revenue of €3.9 billion in 2025, double the figure from five years earlier, is the kind of result that makes any strategy seem obvious in hindsight. Currently, the company handles around 4 million flights and serves 243 million passengers per year. Its cargo operations process an impressive 5.2 million tons annually, distributed across 126 warehouses around the world.
As Warwick Brady, President and CEO of Swissport International, put it when marking the anniversary: the company celebrates the people, the partnerships, and the pioneering spirit that have defined its journey. From its beginnings in Switzerland to becoming a trusted global brand, Swissport has never stood still.
Artificial Intelligence at the heart of operations
When Swissport talks about artificial intelligence, it’s not talking about trends or marketing. It’s talking about real-world applications with a direct impact on the efficiency of handling operations at hundreds of airports. Through Swissport Labs, the company develops and deploys AI, automation, robotics, and data analytics for tasks like aircraft turnaround, fleet management, and passenger processing.
Among these technologies is TurnSmart, which uses AI-powered cameras to provide full visibility throughout the entire aircraft turnaround process. The company also installed smart cameras on its vehicle fleet in North America, a move that reduced operational incidents by an impressive 60% within just six months. Numbers like that show technology isn’t a decoration — it delivers real results.
Another interesting solution is SmartGSE, which tracks ground support equipment across airports, cutting down the time employees spend locating these assets. Meanwhile, the OneKnowledge tool uses AI to answer operational questions from employees in their native languages, something especially useful for a company operating in dozens of countries with different cultures and languages.
Automation has also reached ground support equipment. At Zurich Airport, Swissport is testing a fully autonomous baggage handling vehicle, exploring the next generation of handling equipment. It’s this kind of coordination, invisible to anyone standing in the terminal, that ensures cargo loaded on one continent arrives processed and ready on another in the shortest time possible. Artificial intelligence hasn’t replaced people in this process — it has expanded their ability to make better, faster decisions. 📦
Expansion in key markets
Both IAG Cargo and Swissport share one thing in common: the drive to grow in the right markets. Swissport, for example, recently entered China through Shanghai Pudong Airport, expanded to 16 airports in Saudi Arabia, and closed its acquisition of ASC in the United Kingdom in 2025. In Latin America, the company already operates at 85 airports across 15 countries.
At Shanghai Pudong Airport, Swissport implemented AI-enabled warehouse systems capable of processing up to 3,500 packages per hour with 99.5% accuracy. That level of efficiency is critical for serving segments that don’t tolerate mistakes, like e-commerce and, most importantly, the pharmaceutical sector, which demands flawless traceability.
The company also invested heavily in cargo infrastructure in cities like Manchester, Amsterdam, Sofia, Liège, and at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. These improvements expanded its capacity to handle e-commerce, pharmaceuticals, temperature-sensitive items, and perishables. This is exactly the kind of infrastructure that connects both companies’ strategies — both betting on specialization in high-value segments.
The pharmaceutical network and the precision aviation demands
Few segments test the logistics capabilities of an air operation like the pharmaceutical network. Biological products, vaccines, ongoing-use medications, and hospital supplies need to be transported with a level of control that goes far beyond what’s required for a box of electronics or a batch of automotive parts. The cold chain must be maintained within specific temperature ranges throughout the entire journey, and any interruption, even a brief one, can compromise the product.
It’s in this context that investments like IAG Cargo’s new station in Kuala Lumpur carry so much weight. Connected sensors can monitor storage conditions in real time, while algorithms identify any deviation before it becomes an irreversible problem. The data generated by these systems feed into control dashboards that allow teams to make immediate decisions, whether that means activating a contingency plan or rerouting cargo to a safer path.
The growing demand for pharmaceutical air transport is a reality that isn’t slowing down. The aging global population, advances in biological therapies, and expanded access to medications in emerging markets are all factors that will continue to put pressure on healthcare logistics in the years ahead. Companies that position themselves now, with the right infrastructure, technology, and expertise, will come out ahead. 💊
Sustainability as a strategy, not a talking point
The word sustainability comes up often in the aviation industry, but it doesn’t always come with concrete actions to back it up. In Swissport’s case, 30 years of operations have brought a maturity that allows the company to go beyond the rhetoric. More than 27% of its global ground support equipment fleet is already electric, which the company describes as the largest electric GSE fleet in the world.
This transition isn’t simple. It involves investment in charging infrastructure, team training, and process adaptation. But the results in terms of emissions reduction are already measurable and are part of the company’s long-term strategy. When an operator of this scale replaces diesel vehicles with electric alternatives at hundreds of airports, the environmental impact is enormous.
There’s also a human component in this equation. Swissport employs around 63,000 people worldwide, and in 2025 alone its employees completed more than 2 million training sessions through the Swissport Academy, with a focus on safety and occupational health. As Brady himself highlighted, at the heart of this success are the highly skilled professionals whose dedication ensures safe and reliable operations every day, everywhere. 🌱
What the recent moves by IAG Cargo and Swissport ultimately show is that the future of air cargo depends on three increasingly integrated pillars: cutting-edge technology, specialization in high-value segments like pharmaceuticals, and a genuine commitment to sustainability. The expansion in Kuala Lumpur and Swissport’s three-decade journey are pieces of the same puzzle — one of an industry that has learned that growth today means evolving constantly, responsibly, and intelligently. And honestly, it’s great to see the industry heading in this direction. 😊
