Flying Sharks to/from Madrid, Gran Canaria and Vienna

And what better way to end our best year ever than… Flying sharks??…

And that us exactly what we did last weekend, when we chartered a Boeing 737 from Swiftair and flew a female Rhina ancylostoma from Madrid, after driving it from Planet Ocean (in Montpellier, France), to Aquário Poema del Mar (in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain).

This was a carefully orchestrated operation, because 4 captive bred Stegostoma fasciatum flew back to Madrid in the same aircraft, and were in fact waiting for it on the tarmac as it landed in Las Palmas. The B737 was on the ground for no more than 15 minutes, before the wheels were back up, as it dashed towards Madrid, where it landed at 23:30.

A quick water change was then done on the zebra sharks, to ensure their safe arrival in Haus des Meeres and Sóstó Zoo, after flying to Vienna from Lisbon.

However, time was of the essence, because the flight to Vienna departed from Lisbon at 7:05 and it’s a 5 hour drive from Barajas airport to Lisbon’s cargo terminal!

Needless to say the van couldn’t perform a miracle, so the team arrived to Lisbon at 6:10, 55 minutes before departure. However, a few phone-calls with Groundforce along the way, and exceptional cooperation from TAP, ensured that the 4 sharks boarded the flight and were safely delivered to their new homes.

We have no words to thank our amazing friends listed below, without which we couldn’t have pulled this amazing operation off, thus closing our finest year ever in the most brilliant of ways!

• Planet Ocean, Loro Parque, Poema del Mar Aquarium, Haus des Meeres, and Sóstó Zoo for choosing us to move their sharks.
• Aviation & Logistics Solutions, for providing the aircraft and organizing the flights.
• Alaire, for the fastest ground handling turnover we have ever seen!
• Groundforce and TAP for their exceptional cooperation boarding the Lisbon-Vienna flight after arriving 55 minutes before departure!
• Nippon Express, Cap West, United Air Freight and Erguitrans for handling all the documentation, which was no easy task, given the special fiscal status in the Canary Islands and also the fact that Flying Sharks (the transporter), and the origin and destination of the sharks were spread amongst six different countries & regions (Portugal, France, Spain, Canary Islands, Austria and Hungary)!