With drugmakers racing to produce coronavirus vaccines authorities face a challenge in how to transport them around the world en masse once they're ready...

And they'll have to do it while keeping them at ultra-low temperatures.

Here, at a large cold-storage warehouse at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, KLM workers are getting ready for a surge in vaccine cargos next year.

Schiphol is a major hub for medical products, and it has already handled some of the vaccines being used in trials.

Paul Crombach is program manager of Air France-KLM's cold chain program.

"The bigger containers can carry up to 30,000 doses of the vaccine. We know that we're going to have to transport a lot of the vaccine, so we do expect a large increase there, but we have space, as you can see."

Schiphol is the second biggest hub for pharmaceutical products in Europe.

It's expected to be both a staging ground for vaccines from India, Italy or the United States, and a departure point for vaccines made in Europe.

Marcel Kuijn is Air France-KLM Cargo Pricing and Capacity Director.

"So the first ones will probably come in December, January and from there on, new vaccines will be approved. The additional capacity that is needed for that is something that we are planning for. So we do expect to be able to handle the additional volumes needed for vaccine transportation."

No vaccine has yet been approved by U.S. or European regulators,

But the shot developed by Pfizer and BioNTech could be ready rapid production and distribution as early as next month.

The Pfizer vaccine will have to be transported at -80C, in small cool boxes holding about 5,000 doses which must be kept packed in dry ice until shortly before use.