The CAL Group launched in July 2013 its new product for transporting livestock - CAL Live Animal.
CAL Live Animal is a product designed to meet the requirements for safe and efficient flight handling of a wide variety of livestock. The new product is a culmination of much thought and learning carried out in the Group during the last few months.
Offer Gilboa, the Chairman of CAL, announced that CAL Live Animal is based on the experience and knowledge acquired throughout many years when the Group developed great expertise and reputation in safe and reliable handling of livestock. The product has been developed in order to give the appropriate answer to each of the different categories in this domain. The service offered by the CAL Group is from the single animal until the level of a full charter flight.
Rami Marom, VP Ground Operations & COO of CAL, explained the product is based on the standards defined by Boeing, IATA Live Animal Regulations, World Organization for Animal Health and The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, using CAL’s own unique and specific airborne equipment.
Development of the airborne equipment is based on extensive experience and was accomplished in order to give transported livestock the optimum conditions all along the process.
The CAL Group owns the air cargo terminal in LGG, Belgium and according to Mr. Marom. the Terminal is built and organized to deal with a large number of livestock simultaneously. "The handling itself is performed inside a closed and cooled building that is not exposed to extreme weather conditions, thus a high level of safety and comfort for the animals are ensured. In the picture preparations can be seen being made prior to operation of a full flight of horses in LGG some weeks ago.
The level of proficiency is such that it can be seen that the entire floor is covered with special cartons in order to increase the friction with the floor thus preventing the possibility of the horses slipping before they are loaded into the cages".
The product itself incorporates three categories:
CAL Live Animal Horses – designed for handling horses
CAL Live Animal Exotic – designed for handling exotic animals, such as, lions, tigers, rhinos, giraffes, camels, bees for biological pest control, etc.
CAL Live Animal Pets – designed for handling animal pets such as, ornamental fish, dogs, cats, winged animals, etc.
CAL's flight schedule comprises today between 6 to 8 weekly flights on the route TLV-LGG-TLV, and daily cargo flights to the United States. The Company holds one weekly flight to JFK in one of the 747-200 aircraft at the Company’s disposal, and five times a week there is a flight between LGG and JFK and back in the Boeing 777 cargo aircraft, with half of its cargo capacity devoted to CAL Enroute to Israel, CAL lands, twice a week, in Larnaka (LCA), Cyprus as part of its cooperation with Cyprus Airways. Over and above the regular operations, another field of additional specialization of the Company is executing charter flights to destinations throughout the world.
The Company holds today – 38% of the freighter market in Israel and 22% of the general air cargo market.
