A group of very important guests were transported on flight QR 8197 from Amsterdam-Schiphol to Las Vegas via Qatar Airways this past April. A 777-200 freighter was reserved for just 40 well-pampered passengers from 17 different countries, who flew “first class,” so to speak, on the 11-hour, 20-minute flight. The combined net worth of these clients was about US$160 million. As rich as they were, they did little more on the flight than eat and sleep, with an inflight dining menu of 120 pre-packed haynets, water, oat bran for mash, mixed feed, apples and carrots.
Technically, these passengers would be considered “cargo” since they were not human but equine in nature, including 24 geldings, nine stallions, and seven mares. Of these champions, 24 were jumping horses and 14 were for the sport of dressage. Their destination was the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Cup Finals. Flight QR 8197 was arranged by the Dutta Corporation, an international horse transport specialist, based in North Salem, N.Y. Tim Dutta, owner of the company, which he established in 1988, said the brand-new 777 was full. The horses filled the upper deck (22 pallets) and the belly contained 10 pallets containing 25,000 pounds of gear, including head collars, ropes, blankets, boots, bandages, toys and earplugs.
En route to Las Vegas, the horses were not the only passengers on board. They were attended to by 10 professional grooms and a veterinarian. Each horse was given one-and-a-half stalls, giving them plenty of room. Once they arrived, the horses were quarantined for 42 hours, and they all were declared healthy. The horses traveled with international health papers and passports, which are micro-chipped in their necks.
“I’ve got the very best team behind me,” Dutta said. “We wouldn’t get that kind of a gig if we didn’t know what we were doing.” The gig itself – the commercial transport of high-value animals – is a growing niche in the air cargo world.
Most companies that handle large animals and livestock as airfreight are privately held and closely guarded, so the size of the market is hard to pin down. But every expert who spoke with Air Cargo World said it is a growing, high-value business. For instance, Charlie McMullen, global sales and development manager with U.K.-based Intradco Global Animal Transport, said charters can run anywhere from $80,000 to $500,000, depending on the route and number of animals. He once had two horses onboard with a combined value of £56 million, or roughly US$86 million.
According to U.S.-based equine experts H.E. Sutton Forwarding, an average load will have a combined value of anywhere from $50 million to $500 million.
Fast, safe and humane
Owners of these extremely valuable horses are increasingly choosing to move their animals via air because high-stakes horse races are intercontinental. By using a specialist in the field, they can transport the horses quickly and safely without stressing out the animal. Thoroughbreds, which are used for racing, have an average value of $90,000, but that can be influenced by the purse money it wins. A quarter-horse can range from as little as $1 up to thousands of dollars, depending on its bloodlines, color, age, sex, training or height. A horse is a considerable investment by its owner, so its welfare is of the utmost importance. Turning to an expert to transport the animal is the best solution.
One of these companies is IRT. With offices in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, IRT has been in business since 1972, and focuses only on transporting horses – although it did move two zebras in April. IRT claims to have an average of one horse in transit every hour of the day, but Ian Jory, the West Coast operations manager, said it’s usually more. Jory said the company originally transported only racehorses, but now they carry warm bloods (jumping horses), quarter-horses (for Western events and rodeos), polo ponies, miniature horses and horses that are just family pets. He said there are about six companies in the Los Angeles area, where he is based, that ship horses. IRT doesn’t own its own aircraft; rather, it charters with carriers such as FedEx, KLM (in combination aircraft, with people in the front and horses in the back), Cargolux, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Lufthansa, Korean Air and Malaysia Airlines.
To ship a horse with IRT domestically in the contiguous U.S., the cost is $3,900, assuming there are two other horses onboard. This is because they are transported in a ULD specifically built for horses, called an HMA, which is divided into three stalls. If a horse owner absolutely has to move one horse, then the price triples. For Alaska or Hawaii, it’s $200 more. Shipping a horse abroad is $7,500 per horse, regardless how many there are. This includes quarantine procedures, which are not required on the domestic flights or flights to Canada.
Like IRT, H.E. Sutton Forwarding carries horses exclusively. But one key difference is the ride that it provides. For the last six years, H.E. Sutton has ACMI-leased a 727-200 freighter aircraft from Kalitta Charters II. Appropriately, it’s been dubbed “Air Horse One.”
H.E. Sutton was founded in the horse-racing nerve center of Kentucky in 1957 by horse lover Halford Ewel “Tex” Sutton. Operations manager Mike Payne said the company mainly operates domestically, but it also makes trips to Calgary and Mexico. Depending on the length of the journey, transporting a horse with H.E. Sutton will cost $3,250 to $4,950, depending on the route, duration, distance and landing fees. “Tex started with railroad cars in the ’50s and the next thing you know it evolved into air,” Payne said. He said 65 to 70 percent of the horses they carry are thoroughbreds, with the balance consisting of dressage, jumpers and hunter jumpers.
With a base in Lexington, H.E. Sutton is deeply involved with the Kentucky Derby. Rob Clark, the owner and president of H.E. Sutton, bought the company in 1997, but he has known Tex Sutton since he was 4-years-old. Sutton is gone now, but Clark is carrying on in his tradition.
H.E. Sutton is very busy in the time frame surrounding the Kentucky Oaks and the Kentucky Derby, which was May 2 this year. “It’s a huge two-days for big stakes horse racing,” Clark said. He said there are several prep races leading up to the derby, so the company brought in horses far ahead of the derby to right before race day. Most exciting, this year’s top three finishers – American Pharoah, followed by Firing Line and Dortmund – all came in on “Air Horse One.” American Pharoah had been in a race in Arkansas before the Derby, so he traveled from California to Arkansas, then Tennessee on the aircraft. “The weather was perfect,” Clark said of race day. “Mid-70s and perfectly sunny.”
Pigs really can fly
Although horses are clearly the superstars of the animal transport world, they are hardly the only types of live cargo being shipped. Sharks, lions and exotic birds have all been transported by air. A herd of 100 bison were moved in a C-130 from a conservation center in Portage, Alaska, to Shageluk, Alaska, to be introduced back into the wild in March. Ft. Lauderdale-based Amerijet once moved Shamu the whale.
At Intradco, horses take up 80 percent of its focus, but the remaining 20 percent involves a wide range of livestock and exotics, McMullen said. Earlier this year, Intradco moved 33 giraffes from Johannesburg to Bangkok in a 747F, en route to a massive safari park. Additionally, the firm shipped 200 crocodiles from Nairobi to Turkey in April.
Moving animals across borders requires that every animal meet rules and regulations, McMullen said. They must be free of disease and pass veterinary tests or they will not get export papers. Upon reaching their destination, an animal will be quarantined, with the length of time dependent on the rules in the destination country. “South Africa has African horse sickness, so Europe and the U.K. won’t accept them,” he said. “We send them to Mauritius for 90 days in quarantine; once they are declared free of disease we can move them to Europe.”
Intradco started out carrying general freight, but McMullen said over the years animal transport became its niche, and that is what it has been specializing in for 30 years. Last year, Intradco was purchased by air charter specialist, Chapman Freeborn, which gave Intradco the ability to share knowledge with 30 offices internationally instead of the two they had, in London and Ireland. In return, Chapman Freeborn gained expertise on animal transport, without having to start from scratch, which McMullen said can take a very long time. The company’s most active hubs are in Dubai, Florida, South Africa and South America.
This year, the competition will be heating up for airports that can handle multiple types of animal shipments. On March 23, Rickenbacker International Airport in rural Ohio, became one of a handful of U.S. airports designated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as an approved port for the embarkation of animals. In March, 176 pregnant cows were shipped from Rickenbacker to Thailand for milk production, in partnership with TLT Silver Tiger Logistics, which helped secure the aircraft. This was the first flight from Rickenbacker with livestock on board.
Bryan Schreiber, manager of business development for the all-cargo airport, said TLT wants to make Rickenbacker a special gateway for farm animals and equine facilities, exporting to 48 countries. “We have a specialized processing facility where the animals arrive from the farms, then get processed within a matter of hours,” Schreiber said. “They are quarantined off airport and we can have them crated and on a plane within an hour.” When the animals arrive at Rickenbacker, they are unloaded onto a semi-trailer that has been converted into a chute designed to minimize the stress of the process. Then they enter through the side of the trailer near the front, make one turn and go straight onto a specially designed platform and directly into the shipping container. The animals never touch the ground this way.
Facilities at airport hubs get fancy
Once on the ground, some animals need a safe place off the plane. The first “animal hotel” opened at Amsterdam- Schiphol in the 1950s, to provide temporary accommodation for live animals waiting for export shipment or import clearance. Almost half of the states in the U.S. now have some sort of animal facilities at one of their airports.
One of the more notable planned facilities now underway is “The ARK” at JFK Airport in New York. The ARK is a privately owned animal handling facility, being built by ARK Development LLC, an affiliate of real estate company Racebrook Capital. The developer signed a 30-year lease with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to develop, finance, build, operate and manage the $48 million project. At 178,000 square-feet, the ARK will contain a cargo facility, and a USDAapproved, full-service, 24-hour airport quarantine area for the import and export of horses, pets, birds and livestock. It will be built on the current site of Cargo Building 78, on 14.4 acres, and includes direct access to the taxiway and aircraft ramp parking. Aircraft will be able to taxi right to the building so horses can be directly transported to reduce stress. A large animal departure lounge for horses being exported will have comfortable stalls and access to food and water. An arrival area for horses provides a place for their vital signs to be taken before they are placed in individually climate controlled areas with bedding and natural light.
Professor Temple Grandin, a Ph.D. in animal science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the leading authority on livestock movement, designed the livestock export handling area at The ARK. The facility will allow for the safe handling of cattle, goats, pigs and sheep from truck to aircraft. Aaron Pearl, with Racebrook, said he cold-called Grandin (made famous by an HBO film about her life in 2010), and ten minutes later she and her lead designer signed up. It’s a possibility that the facility could be named after Grandin.
Similar concepts have already taken hold in other parts of the world. Amsterdam- Schiphol Airport now has the service “Variation Live” for shipping horses, cats, dogs, ornamental fish, baby chickens, zoo animals, cattle, hatching eggs and insects. Here, they keep the animals comfortable in between flights. All animals traveling through Schiphol stay at the KLM Cargo Animal Hotel during transit and on arrival. ULDs suitable for each species are available in strict accordance with IATA’s live-animal regulations. They even have a dog-walking service; cats get their own litter box. Amsterdam- Schiphol won’t take animals from private individuals, only from specialized freight agents.
In Hong Kong’s Super Terminal 1, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd. (Hactl) has handled exotics ranging from pandas, dolphins, sharks and competition horses to smaller animals such as birds, dogs, cats and hamsters. More than half of the animals Hactl handles are domestic pets, but it has dealt with major shipments of race horses and show jumpers for international races, such as the Longines Masters. It has also handled small numbers livestock for breeding purposes.
In 2014, the total of live animals in head count, handled by Hactl, was 7,470, for a total weight of nearly 8,000 tonnes.
Simon Fu, executive director of Hactl, said it is an important and valued business, but in tonnage terms it was less than half a percent of Hactl’s total. Fu said smaller animals are handled through Hactl’s 1,750-square-foot sheltered livestock rooms, one of which is temperature-controlled. These are located within an 18,500-square-foot livestock handling center, sited airside on the ground floor of Hactl’s facility, for fast and direct ramp transfers. “We have all the facilities and trained staff to keep all types of animals, including pets, in a comfortable and stress-free environment for as long as is necessary,” Fu said. “The majority of Hactl’s live animal traffic is to or from Hong Kong, or nearer China, for the obvious reason that animals are best transported point-to-point, if possible, rather than having to endure trans-shipment.”
Animal safety
As seen from these examples, the safety and comfort of the animals is of paramount concern. The International Pet and Animal Transportation Association (IPATA), a nonprofit organization dedicated to animal care and welfare during transport, reports that the cargo industry has risen to the challenge, making 2014 one of the safest years in history for animals. In 2014, 17 animals died while being transported by air, and 26 were injured. But in 2010, 39 animals died in transit. IPATA estimates that 1 million pets travel on U.S. airliners every year, with most health problems in the air due to pre-existing medical issues the animal had, which emerge in flight due to the change in environment.
Jory, from IRT, said most horses do very well flying, and are accompanied by two professional grooms in front of the horses when traveling in an HMA. IRT’s grooms, or handlers, are all veterinary-trained. They carry tranquilizers and medicines with them on each flight. “It’s rare that a horse has to be tranquilized, as most just sleep standing up on the flight,” Jory said. “Dehydration is the biggest problem, and a horse will drink five gallons of water in an eight-hour flight.” With their own people on both ends of a flight, Jory said it gives them an advantage.
On Jan. 1, 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation expanded its rules with regard to the loss, injury or death of animals during air transport to include all U.S. carriers with at least one aircraft of more than 60 seats. Airlines are now required to file a year-end report that will include the total number of animals transported and the total number of animals that were lost, or injured, or that died during air transport.
“There are very few animal incidents when compared to the number of pets transported by air each year,” said Manuel Leunda, IPATA’s president. “IPATA supports the expanded reporting by the airlines. Air travel is the safest and most humane mode of travel for pets.”
Whether it’s a high-dollar thoroughbred, a herd of cattle, your family pet or snakes on a plane, the industry of transporting animals is finding new ways to cater to this diversifying specialty cargo segment. With safety always at the forefront, our best friends can move with us, or, in some cases to a place better suited for their needs – often in better comfort than us humans. Just ask the relaxed four-legged athletes on flight QR 8197.