China Southern Airlines and Air New Zealand Airlines have co-operated successfully on interlining of live honey bees from Auckland via Los Angeles to Vancouver.
This is the first time for China Southern to take advantage of the Fifth Traffic Rights of its PVG-LAX-YVR-PVG freighter flight to interline livestock with foreign airlines. All together, five shipments of live bees weighing 8.2 tons had been transferred via LAX during a one month period
Transportation of livestock requires operation excellence, and can generate more revenue compared with general cargo. With the growing demand of special cargo transportation in recent years, airlines are adapting themselves to tap into this market.
With close co-operation by China Southern, Air New Zealand and ground handling agents, the four-week livestock interline project was an important milestone for China Southern, taking its interline business to a higher level.
The honey bees transferred by China Southern originated from New Zealand. They were loaded in PMC pallets, each weighing about 1600 kg, and containing 18 queens and 60,000 bees. A lot of heat was generated due to large number of bees gathered in a limited space, thus temperature control was the biggest challenge in the handling process (temperature was required to be between 5-10 degrees Celsius). In order to ensure the bees arrived in Vancouver safe and sound, China Southern co-ordinated priority loading and unloading, airborne air conditioning, and fastest delivery at final destination.
