Air-Freighting Animals: A Most Lucrative Game

An African white rhinoceros peers through the bars of its Frankfurt compound, while across the floor a Madagascan chameleon inches around its vivarium and an Andean alpaca plucks hay from a bale. It’s not a scene from the city’s zoo but Deutsche Lufthansa’s Animal Lounge, a state-of-the-art complex at the center of the German airline’s plans to dominate one of the most specialized parts of the $66 billion air-cargo industry.

Lufthansa, Air France-KLM Group, and Dubai-based Emirates, which transports thoroughbreds for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, horse racing’s leading owner, are competing in a market that’s small (only about 1 percent of air cargo) yet lucrative. But the hefty fees come with the ever-present risk of an in-flight death involving a beloved family pet, top-ranked stallion, or priceless panda. “It’s not like [transporting] pharmaceuticals, where your main concern is the temperature,” says Animal Lounge Director Axel Heitmann, who has 24 veterinarians on his staff. “If a bag of fish leaks it needs replacing with the right kind of water and the right oxygen. And if something goes wrong you can’t just hand a customer $1,000 and tell him to buy another pet.”