Transport Canada has formally notified Envirotainer that its RKN e1 electrical heating and compressor cooling air cargo container is now accepted and qualified for use by Air Canada Cargo.

This latest development makes Air Canada the first North American airline to be certified by Transport Canada for the carriage of RKN e1 containers, which allow the maintenance of temperatures between +2 to +25 C.

'This is great news for Air Canada Cargo and for our customers. With the RKN e1, we are able to offer our customers another specialized solution for the transportation of temperature sensitive shipments,' said Lise-Marie Turpin, Managing Director, Air Canada Cargo.

This latest development, which follows approval of the RKN e1 container by the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA), will allow healthcare shippers from across Canada, the northern United States, Europe, South America and Asia Pacific even greater access to the benefits offered by the RKN e1 and the markets they serve with Air Canada's proven AC Cool product line.

Thomas Persson, CEO of Envirotainer, said: 'This is excellent news for Envirotainer and also the worldwide healthcare companies and their airline and logistics partners that increasingly want to use the RKN e1 to maintain the quality and integrity of their products. We are seeing strong growth in demand for the container and have recently decided for invest in a further 80 RKN e1 units by the end of 2009 to keep pace with demand.'

Transport Canada's certification of the container is based on European Technical Standard Order (ETSO) that corresponds to the Canadian Standard of Airworthiness.

Transport Canada is the department within the government of Canada which is responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities (TIC) portfolio.