Russian Airline Flying Pigs To China From France In 747 Jumbo Jets Records Hefty Profit Amid Pandemic

The Russian airline company 'Volga-Dnepr Group' is seeing a sales surge amid the COVID-19 pandemic when the outbreak has dealt a dire setback to commercial airline business at large.

China, the so-called world’s biggest pork market has been facing widespread shortages in its livestock population after the African swine flu outbreak wiped out the country’s hog herds last year. In hopes to restore the levels, China imported a significant number of pigs from foreign countries in a project aided by the airline group.

Volga-Dnepr has helped China haul around 3,000 breeding pigs from France this year. The animals were transported 6,450 miles in wooden crates in the hold of a Boeing 747 cargo plane, Bloomberg reports.

The overwhelming swine shortage can further be attributed to China’s stringent measures to contain the coronavirus spread and the country is now stepping up its efforts to boost the population of domestic herds. It has imported a total of 254,533 tons of pork in the first three months of the year alone from the U.S., which well surpassed the 245,000 tons China bought in the whole year of 2019. The U.S. now has overtaken Europe to become China’s largest pork supplier, according to the publication.

The airline company, a well-known transporter of virtually everything ranging from satellites to emergency bridges, is capitalizing on the shifting demand that the pandemic has given rise to. Volga-Dnepr is also shipping masks, hazmat suits, medical equipment, and even street-disinfecting vehicles to countries like Russia, France, and Germany as they battle to stem the virus.

As of April, the group experienced a 32% jump in its sales as compared to the same period in the previous year, amounting to $630 million profit.

"Global aviation is going through its most challenging time ever, but for cargo carriers like us, it's a chance," Volga-Dnepr supremo Alexey Isaykin told Bloomberg. "Previously, more than half of all aviation cargoes were carried in the luggage compartments of passenger planes. With this supply vanishing from the market, demand for cargo airlines surged and prices more than doubled," he added.