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.”