A booming biz: Shipping pigs in jumbo jets

The coronavirus has wreaked havoc on commercial aviation, but Alexey Isaykin's cargo carrier has been fully loaded.

Volga-Dnepr Group has flown more than 3,000 breeding pigs to China from France this year. The animals -- transported 6,450 miles (10,400 km) in wooden crates in the hold of a Boeing 747 cargo plane -- are being used to restore local livestock levels to help mitigate shortages in the world's largest pork market after an outbreak of African swine fever decimated hog herds.

Measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus amplified those swine shortages and accelerated attempts to boost the population of domestic herds. China imported a total

China's 254,533 tonnes of pork in the first four months of the year from the US, which overtook Europe to become China's largest pork supplier. That's already more than the 245,000 tonnes China bought for the whole of 2019.

The cargo is a sign of the shifting demand that Isaykin's company -- known for transporting everything from satellites to emergency bridges -- is experiencing as the pandemic reshapes his industry.

The company is also shipping masks, hazmat suits, medical equipment and even street-disinfecting vehicles to countries like Russia, France and Germany as they battle to contain the virus. VolgaDnepr's sales rose 32 per cent to $630 million this year through April compared with the same period in 2019.

"Global aviation is going through its most challenging time ever, but for cargo carriers like us it's a chance," Isaykin said in a Zoom interview from Moscow. "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."

Isaykin's stake in closely held Volga-Dnepr is worth $700 million, by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Russian company's revenue may increase by a third this year to $2 billion, Isaykin predicts.