On the early morning of April 4, giant pandas “Xing 2” and “Mao 2” departed from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, transited through Beijing Capital International Airport, and were carried by North-Euro Airline Company to Copenhagen, Denmark. It is reported that China and Denmark will take this as an opportunity to launch a 15-year international cooperation on the scientific research and protection of giant pandas.
As this was the first instance of giant panda export after the merger of the customs and commodity inspection system, there was great uncertainty in all aspects. In order to ensure the smooth transportation of the two giant pandas, the Beijing branch and the Chengdu branch worked together. A special support team was set up, considerable detailed preparatory work was done, and multiple instances of communication and coordination were actively carried out with the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding and Research Base, the North-Euro Airline Company, Beijing Customs, Air China Base, Air China Warehouse and other relevant units. Therefore, efficient communication channels were established, and many sets of support plans were formulated.After repeated communication among various parties, the details of the transportation date, the flight arrangements, transportation documents, package sizes, collection and transportation requirements, safety inspections, cargo handling and the entire process for breeder escorts were confirmed one by one. During declaration to customs, information inconsistencies in the certificate of endangered status were overcome, though the pandas finally passed successfully through the special customs channel for manual examination.
This giant panda transportation mission was a successful example of cross-regional cooperation and led to the accumulation of valuable experience for the company’s international live transportation business. It is hoped that all of its regions and business units can actively push forward the implementation of its “marketing-driven” strategy, give full play to the competitive advantages of joint marketing, continuously strengthen internal coordination, fully explore market opportunities and internal resources, and strive to improve and strengthen the international air transport business.