Page 7 - STAT August 2022 for Magzter

He added that when the sector wit- that of finding attendants. “All of a sudden,
nessed some form of recovery, it was mainly they were not allowed to fly anymore on
for livestock. “When we started flying mainly some airlines as aviation companies were
livestock again, there was a lot of poultry fearing that they could transfer Covid-19
being flown.” to crew members. Airlines and authorities
However, what came to a halt was imposed additional requirements for in-
equine movement in cargo. “What did flight attendants, which were hard to meet.
come to almost a complete halt for a For instance, in the USA, our attendants
longer period was the horse transport. needed a different visa, for which they need
This was primarily because the grooms to apply and visit the US Embassy. But then
The first European couldn't fly. So even though the horses the embassy remains closed to the public
were allowed themselves if we didn't have
for months due to the pandemic, and it
lockdown was especially any grooms to accompany the horses, becomes very difficult.”
McMullen said another big sector that
a real nightmare. Not then the horses couldn't fly by default. So was hit within live animal transport was
that became a big issue.”
only were most flights Vande Cappelle agreed that the Cov- that of commercial livestock. “This is usually
cancelled for a number id-19 pandemic hit our sector really hard,” sheep destined for the Middle East, which
the past president of the ATA said. “The
are usually for consumption, as opposed
of weeks, but we were first European lockdown was especially a to breeding. That is a very price-sensitive
also not always able to real nightmare. Not only were most flights market, and at that point, freight prices
skyrocketed, and none of those importers
cancelled for a number of weeks, but we
find alternative solutions. were also not always able to find alterna- could afford to pay airfreight prices.”
He added that the effects of the pan-
tive solutions. Many horse shows were
Many horse shows were cancelled worldwide.” demic were still being felt in the sector. “The
However, like McMullen, Vande Capelle
cancelled worldwide. said that shipping horses was not as big a sector has, and it still is, suffering now. Pretty
much all commercial livestock is going by
Filip Vande Capelle problem once a suitable flight or aircraft vessel. There are anomalies on certain lanes
ATA was found. The real problem, however, was currently. From what we're seeing, if you

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