AirBridgeCargo completes the first charter flight with elite breeding pigs in a series of 17 flights under the charter programme

AirBridgeCargo Airlines, part of Volga-Dnepr Group and one of the leaders in special cargo transportation, has delivered over 700 breeding pigs from Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow to Vladivostok on its Boeing 747-8F charter flight.

719 elite breeding Duroc pigs, weighing over 80 tonnes, were safely loaded in double-deck wooden containers, trucked from Voronezh region (Russia) to Sheremetyevo International Airport to be further transported to Vladivostok under strict temperature environment. This is the first flight in a series on 17 flights under the charter programme which will last up till spring 2021 to facilitate the development of 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, noted that it is very important for the company to provide a full cycle of ground handling operations at the airport: “We are glad that our experience in handling large shipments of live animals allowed us to quickly and efficiently prepare the flight for departure. Organizing 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 been part of major livestock transportation projects and has gained the required expertise and experience, aligned its internal and third-party procedures, educated and certified its specialist to become a reliable partner for its customers worldwide. The company has experienced two-digit growth in live animals’ transportation during 2020 and has been offering its dedicated solutions in line with biosafety measures amid COVID-19 outbreak.