In the first week of January, employees of FCS Frankfurt Cargo Services, part of WFS Group, were among 1,500 handling specialists to undergo Covid tests at Frankfurt Airport in support of the Group’s global campaign to ensure the wellbeing of its staff and to maintain the highest level of business continuity for its airline customers.
Despite widespread cancellations of passenger flights, cargo volumes at Frankfurt Airport rose significantly year-on-year in 2020 as the airport, airlines and cargo handlers played a vital role in movements of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as well as general cargoes, and put in place processes to handle the anticipated airlift of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines. The large-scale testing of staff from three of the airport’s major cargo handling companies – which together handle nearly 40% of airfreight at Frankfurt Airport – was conducted onsite by Bensheim-based Chemlab.
For Claus Wagner, Managing Director of FCS, the measure is another step forwards in the company’s infection protection programme: “The WFS Group, to which FCS belongs, has taken consistent measures to protect employees and ensure business continuity across its global network since the beginning of the pandemic. The health of our employees is a main concern for our shareholders WFS Worldwide Flight Services and Fraport AG. Especially after the holidays, we wanted our employees to be able to return to work and feel safe to enable us to maintain our operational logistics processes for air cargo handling at all times.”
Chemlab Managing Director Harald Störk is satisfied with the move: “Conducting the tests during ongoing shift operations was a logistical challenge that we were able to successfully overcome in a joint action with the freight handlers. Thanks to the good and flexible interaction of all the companies involved, we were able to test everyone quickly and efficiently.”
