LIVESTOCK LOGISTICS\\\ Looking lively:


animal and livestock transport


Moving animals around the world is big business. Whether that’s commercial livestock, treasured family pets or rare and exotic zoo animals, there is a freight operator to cater for their needs.


Going is good for Schiphol’s new Animal Centre


Schiphol’s new ‘horse hotel’


handled its first ‘passengers’ on 2 March, on a chartered flight from the Middle East. The facility, which has a maximum capacity of 24 animals, saw a total of 43 horses passing through that weekend. “It all went perfectly,” says Edwin


Hofstede, director of general sales agent, European Cargo Services – one of the two partners in the new venture, which has been christened the Schiphol Animal Centre. His colleague, Gerard Kervezee,


commercial manager at handling company, Aviapartner Cargo Services - the other half of the joint venture - says the horse centre will help the company offer its customers a one-stop shop in this very specialised segment of the cargo business. Schiphol’s Horse Hotel isn’t the


first such facility at a European airport – indeed it is only the second at Schiphol itself where Netherlands


flag carrier KLM


has long offered services to its equine passengers – but it will set new standards in handling, the two partners believe. On the inaugural flights, all the horses were unloaded from the plane and in their stalls within 30 minutes of landing. “Horses are no different from


human passengers,” Hofstede explains. “As soon as they land, they want to get off the plane, stretch their legs and make themselves comfortable.” While there can be the


occasional difficult four-legged passengers, horses are on the whole better behaved than human beings. At least they won’t have been getting stuck into the booze-trolley on the flight. “Bear in mind, some of these horses spend more travelling than you or I,” Kervezee points out. “They’re star racehorses, show jumpers or dressage horses, so they’re very experienced travellers.” The airfreight market for


horses is beginning to grow again, Kervezee considers, and he is hopeful that the new joint venture can attract extra business to Schiphol. “There are an increasing number of horse shows, and buying and selling of horses is also growing.” He points out, also, that the Netherlands is in itself an important centre for horse breeding – Fresians are world renowned in horsey circles. Schiphol also has the potential


to develop into a major transit point for horses – it has scheduled main deck capacity to and from the Americas and also the Far and Middle East. Knitting the two trade lanes together, while offering transiting horses a comfortable and safe stay, could open up major new markets. For the moment the Schiphol Animal Centre will handle only horses, though in the longer term other live traffic could be considered. “In due course, we could look at other traffics like ostriches, for instance,” Kervezee explains. “But for the moment we


It’s horses for


courses as Hong Kong jumps to it


Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (Hactl) moved 63 horses on 24 February, arriving on a Luſthansa Cargo charter flight from Liege, and bound for Asia’s first indoor show jumping event at the Asia World Expo.


It was the largest


want to build up our experience with the horses and maybe then see what other traffic we could attract.” Each type of animal has its own specific handling and veterinary requirements, so any such move will require careful preparation. The Horse Hotel has its own


specialised grooms on the payroll, to ensure that all passengers are well looked aſter. Some owners prefer to have their own grooms accompany their horses, of course. As with two legged passengers,


there is a certain hierarchy in flying horses. There is the equivalent of economy, business and first class – the extra hoof-room is achieved by means of moveable partitions inside the specialised horse stalls – which are essentially adapted airfreight containers. The in-flight catering tends to be much of a muchness, though – hay, basically – unless the owner chooses to make his own arrangements. There are a number of


specialist forwarders that handle horses. They provide services such as blood tests and


health documentation, make arrangements for quarantine and deal with customs formalities. ECS takes care of booking the space on the airline, provides the stall, deals with loading and supplies the grooms, where required. Many of the horse stalls used


are built by Rotterdam-based manufacturer, Van Riemsdijk. There has been something of a move away from fixed to collapsible stalls, Kervezee explains. Inevitably, empty stalls do have to be moved around the world and if four collapsible stalls can fit in the space of a single fixed one, so much the better. ECS’s logistics department is fully occupied in keeping track of the fleet of nearly 300 stalls. He is half-way through a


testing programme for a new design of lightweight stall that uses glass fibre rather than aluminium. If its proves suitable, and robust enough, it could save around 150kilos in weight – which adds up to a major saving at today’s airfreight rates.


horse charter Hactl has ever handled in its 37-year history, said chief executive, Mark Whitehead. To make sure all went smoothly, Hactl deployed special cargo handling experts and security professionals. Hactl’s SuperTerminal 1


handles anything from pandas, dolphins, elephants and competition horses, right down to birds, cats, dogs or hamsters. More than half of the animals are domestic pets. It has trained and experienced animal handling specialists, who generally work in teams of two, though more can be assigned due to the size or nature of a shipment. Vets are usually supplied by the shipper, such as the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Hactl supervisors receive regular


training and frequent refresher courses. Hactl people work shiſts which


allow flexible staffing levels to suit the needs of particular animal shipments. Equipment varies according to animal type, says Whitehead: “For horses, we use our airline customers’ stalls for smooth transfer from aircraſt to horsebox or vice versa. Other oversize animals such as pandas are generally delivered in special crates, and these are carefully handled using forktrucks to offload from road vehicles onto pallets and dollies.” Animals


generally stay in


Hactl’s facility for no more than 24 hours, but this is governed by how quickly they are collected by the consignee, or how near to close-out they are delivered by the shipper. There is a surcharge for stays over 24 hours. But, says Whitehead, “While animals are within our facility, we do all we can to make their stay comfortable.”


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