b'jUnE 22 - jUly 26, 2020NOrth AmericAs trANsPOrtAtiON & LOGistics N ewsPAPer 19AIR C ARGOAir CArgoNEWSNEWSA booming airline business: Shipping pigs to China in 747 jumbo jetsThe coronavirus has wreaked havoc onfor transporting everything from satellites commercial aviation, but Alexey Isaykinsto emergency bridgesis experiencing as cargo carrier has been fully loaded. the pandemic reshapes his industry.Volga-Dnepr Group has flown moreThe company is also shipping masks, than 3,000 breeding pigs to China fromhazmatsuits,medicalequipmentand Francethisyear.Theanimalstrans- even street-disinfecting vehicles to coun-ported6,450miles(10,400kilometers)tries like Russia, France and Germany as in wooden crates in the hold of a Boeingtheybattletocontainthevirus.Volga-747cargoplanearebeingusedtoDneprs sales rose 32% to $630 million restore local livestock levels to help miti- this year through April compared with the gate shortages in the worlds largest porksame period in 2019. Volga-Dnepr transports an Atlas 5 rocket booster to Cape Canaveral, Florida,market after an outbreak of African swineGlobal aviation is going through its fever decimated Chinas hog herds. most challenging time ever, but for cargo Measures to stem the spread of thecarrierslikeusitsachance,IsaykinVolga-Dnepr delivers for first stage of coronavirus amplified those swine short- said in a Zoom interview from Moscow.United Launch Alliances Atlas 5 rocketagesandacceleratedattemptstoboostPreviously, more than half of all avia-the population of domestic herds. Chination cargoes were carried in the luggageOn May 18th, Volga-Dnepr transportedAfterunloadingtheuniquecargo imported a total 254,533 tons of pork incompartments of passenger planes. Withan Atlas 5 rocket booster to Cape Canaveral,piece from the aircraft, ULA moved the the first four months of the year from thethissupplyvanishingfromthemarket,Florida, for a scheduled mission to Mars. rocket into the Atlas Spaceflight Opera-U.S., which overtook Europe to becomedemandforcargoairlinessurgedandTheAN-124-100Ruslan,isthetions Center for post-shipment checks.Chinaslargestporksupplier.Thatsprices more than doubled. onlyaircraftlargeenoughtocarrytheThehighprofiledeliverysignaled already more than the 245,000 tons ChinaIsaykins stake in closely held Volga- Atlas5,andflewthe32-meterlongthe start of a new phase of launch prepa-bought for the whole of 2019. Dneprisestimatedtobewortharoundrocket booster, from Huntsville, AlabamarationsforthePerseveranceRover,the Thecargoisasignoftheshifting$700 million, according to the Bloombergto its final launch location. In addition tocenterpiece of NASAs $2.5 billion Mars demand that Isaykins companyknown(BOOMINGcontinued on page 20) the over-length piece, Volga-Dnepr also2020 mission. transported payload fairings and RD-180The launch is scheduled at 9:10 a.m. engines for the special mission. on July 17.Thepigs are transported 6,450 miles in wooden crates in the hold of a Boeing 747 cargo plane.DHL Express to add hundreds of jobs at US airport gateways and hubsDHLExpress,theworldsleadingOur challenge this year is that were providerofinternationalexpressship- seeingpeakvolumesinthesummer, pingservices,isaddingapproximatelywhich is a nontraditional time. We nor-400 new jobs in the United States due tomally have time to prep for peak season, adouble-digitvolumeincreaseinship- said Hewitt.ments compared to last year. At the DHL Express Americas Hub Inbound shipment volume is boom- (Cincinnati/NorthernKentuckyInterna-ing,particularlyfrom Asia,saidGregtionalAirport),thecompanyisadding Hewitt, CEO for DHL Express U.S. Ourabout 150 jobs to handle the 30 percent customersarerelyingonustodeliveryear-over-year volume increase.theirshipments,whetheritspersonalAtthecompanysgatewayatthe protectiveequipment(PPE)orhomeMiami International Airport, which con-necessities, so we must add staff at ournectstothecompanysSouth America, hubs, gateways and on the road to con- Central America and Caribbean network, tinueprovidingourcustomerswithabout 30 jobs are being added to account excellent service. for a higher volume than last year. Volume Volumeshavesignificantlyincreasedis expected to increase another 22 percent in recent months due to a spike in onlinewith the implementation of a new Hong shopping as people stayed quarantined dueKongLos AngelesMiami flight that toCOVID-19.Urgentshipmentssuchascommenced in late May.masks, gloves and other PPE also contrib- This new flight from Asia, scheduled utedtoHoliday-season-likevolumes,butto run in-bound five times per week, will these volumes have come without the usualadd approximately 45 more tons of capac-pre-season preparation time for the peak. ity per flight.'