In the first in a series of 17 flights, 719 elite breeding Duroc pigs, weighing over 80 tonnes, were safely loaded in double-deck wooden containers, trucked from Russia's Voronezh region to Sheremetyevo International airport and flown to Vladivostok under strict temperature-controlled conditions.
This17-flight charter programme will last up till spring 2021, to facilitate the development of the Far East agriculture sector. The flights will be operated with pigs coming from Voronezh and Tambov regions, as well as from the Republic of Bashkortostan.
Nikolay Glushnev, General Director of AirBridgeCargo Airlines, commented: “It is great to see the recovery of traditionally strong sectors within our country and we are proud to be part of this major project assisting with our dedicated fleet and experienced logistics practitioners. Together with our long-standing and reliable ground handling partner, Sheremetyevo Cargo, we are able to leverage this charter programme, consisting of 17 flights, and guarantee the well-being of the animals within the airport premises, on the apron and during the whole flight”.
Vladimir Teterkin, Operation Director of Sheremetyevo-Cargo JSC, also commented. "We are glad that our experience in handling large shipments of live animals allowed us to quickly and efficiently prepare the flight for departure. Organising work in a variety of business – from specifications of packaging materials to strict timings for ground handling operations - we, together with our partner AirBridgeCargo, were able to achieve significant synergy. Of course, the whole process of work was controlled by our own systems of objective telecontrol - this is a feature of our company, which is well known in the aviation industry".
AirBridgeCargo has experienced double-digit growth in live animals’ transportation during 2020 and has been offering its dedicated solutions in line with biosafety measures amid the COVID-19 outbreak.