Leveraging extensive experience in live animal transport, Intradco Global is diversifying its operations
Intradco Global (Intradco) is the world’s leading equine, livestock, and exotics air charter transportation specialist, conducting a wide range of large-scale animal transportations from international horse shipments and commercial livestock supply to zoo relocations and conservation projects. With specialist expertise in sensitive, time-critical shipments, Intradco has extended its services to live events logistics in recent years by establishing a new business unit, Intradco Dynamiq.
“I’ve been involved in the business since a very young age, as my father co-founded Intradco back in 1987,” begins Charlie McMullen, CEO. “The name was formed as an acronym of International Trading Company and aimed to simplify the process associated with charter or air freight for international trade. At the time, we moved all types of cargo because there weren’t many freighters around, so air charters were required to reach many global destinations. 
“1989 marked our first animal assignment, which saw us move just six horses from London to Accra. From the 1990s onwards, we specialized in live animal transport, developing subject knowledge that later led to us extending our services to an array of wildlife, exotic animals, and protected species. We also began developing horse and livestock stalls with a focus on innovating the process from an animal welfare perspective.
“By the turn of the millennium, we were focused almost exclusively on live animal transport, especially considering the horse racing sector was rapidly evolving,” he continues. “We then started to transport animals for breeding, rewilding, and conservation projects, growing from a small business to part of a much larger organization following our acquisition by Chapman Freeborn Airchartering in 2014. As the world’s largest cargo charter company at that time, the acquisition by Chapman Freeborn enabled us to expand our products and services via their worldwide offices.”
Chapman Freeborn was later purchased by Avia Solutions Group, the world’s largest aircraft, crew, maintenance, and insurance (ACMI) provider. “Given its leading position in the market, Avia Solutions Group owns several commercial and cargo aircraft that afford us the advantage of using our own aircraft for live animal transports,” Charlie explains.
“Today, we specialize in handling all different types of species including equine, genetic and commercial livestock, zoological, and poultry. We don’t actively focus on traditional cargo, but we occasionally move cargo where it complements the live animal transport or makes a process cost efficient for the customer. We’re taking an animal shipment from Europe to Africa, for instance, but instead of flying an empty plane on the return journey, we found a customer who needed a shipment transporting from Madagascar to France, making the entire journey much more cost effective and sustainable.
“In terms of geographic growth, the UK has always been our headquarters, but we now occupy additional offices in Toronto, Dubai, Miami, and soon to be Australia,” he states. Toronto was our first international expansion, and the Miami office helps us service the North American market while also providing a gateway into Latin America. Our next expansion is into Australia, which has both a strong horse market and an extensive agricultural sector.”
Time-critical transport
With a commitment to animal welfare, Intradco is constantly evolving its equipment to foster better travel conditions. “We use the IATA Live Animal Regulations (LAR), a legal framework of best practices, to identify the appropriate containers and conditions like loading density, humidity, temperature, and maximum journey time for each species,” Charlie explains. “However, we’ve built upon this framework and conducted our own research to further improve conditions and build our own containers or stalls.
“We are one of only four companies in the world with the capability to design, manufacture, and certify stalls for live animal transportation. We’ve recently developed a new stall for Boeing 777s that will bring huge ergonomic benefits compared to existing stalls in the market. These will be launched in early 2025 with an initial run of 120.
“Aside from standard stall improvements, we also produce bespoke, one-off solutions for animals of all shapes and sizes, including penguins, giraffes, and other unique species,” he adds. “We use IATA’s LAR for guidance, supported by subject matter experts, to produce the crate required for each species. We’re moving 1500 dairy cattle from Europe to the Middle East in the coming months, for example, and we’re even currently preparing to transport a wolverine next month.”
Leveraging its extensive experience in time-critical logistics, Intradco established a new business division, Intradco Dynamiq, to service niche markets like music tours, live sports events, and life sciences. “Intradco Dynamiq focus on any kind of cargo that requires a hands-on or white glove service,” Charlie confirms. “One of our biggest sectors is live events, such as concerts or sports events. These movements are not only time sensitive with shows of huge audiences depending on the equipment arriving on time, but they are also very high frequency.
“We carry out logistics for the tours of a major global band, for instance, which requires us to move show equipment twice a week for a period of up to three months. The pressure is high, but considering our experience within the live animal market, we’ve got a deep understanding of the detailed planning required to ensure a niche project succeeds. As most live events are pre-planned in terms of ticket sales, venue bookings, and marketing, we can schedule aircraft well in advance to better plan our entire calendar.”
Given the company’s success in live animal transportation alongside expansion into new markets, the future looks bright for Intradco. “Although we’re currently focused on establishing a presence in Australia, there are certain other geographic markets that hold huge potential for us in the future,” Charlie concludes. “China has a strong animal transport sector and is also growing in terms of live music and sports events, as well as Saudi Arabia, which we can service from Dubai. We have a few acquisitions planned across the company but we’re largely concentrating on consolidating our Dynamiq business and delivering consistent service.”