Narrator: These pandas just flew into Qatar from China. The crew has carefully planned their journey for months, managing their stress, health, and controlling the temperature. Qatar is home to the world's largest animal cargo center,

and about half a million animals travel through here every year, from horses to birds and tiger cubs. Literally, our airport's VP and his team figured out what music best calms the animals down.

Narrator: But Qatar is also one of the hottest places on Earth, averaging 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. Animals could easily overheat if they sit on a plane for too long. This is especially challenging when the center handles

2.4 million metric tons of freight a year, almost as much as FedEx some years, including luxury cars and fresh food. Mark: It's a massive game of Tetris. And when you play Tetris at this level, you need

to always be a little more creative. Narrator: So how did this tiny country become the world's cargo hub? And how do crews protect precious cargo in blazing heat? Unloading the freighter is a race against the clock.

Crews have to do it in about 45 minutes. It may sound like a lot, but these packages weigh thousands of pounds and take time to move off the plane. Crews have another 650 flights to handle today.

This operation runs like a Swiss watch. Everyone is in the right place. Narrator: Mark Drusch is in charge of the thousands of people who work at the center. Most flights are operated by Qatar Airways, headquartered here in Doha.

Think about the geography. We sit within eight hours of two-thirds of the world's population. When Qatar's state-run airline started flying in 1994, it was so small it only served a few destinations, mostly regional ones.

But in 1997, a new CEO saw Doha's location, just a few hours from Africa and manufacturing hubs in China and India, as a major asset. He decided to turn it into a cargo hub. To make that happen,

the airline started selling cargo space on passenger planes and flying to more places. In 2003, Qatar Airways purchased its first cargo-only plane, and plans to build a modernized airport in Doha began. By the time Hamad International opened in 2014,

Qatar Airways' cargo fleet had expanded eightfold. By 2021, the fleet had more than tripled in size. Cargo accounted for 63% of the company's revenue, and Qatar Airways emerged as one of the world's largest freight carriers,

outperformed only by FedEx that year. Now its network connects 178 destinations on every continent except Antarctica. The cargo revenue onboard is part of making that airplane profitable. Narrator: Some airlines have reported cargo accounting for up to 40%

of the revenue made from a single flight. Once all those packages make it off the plane, step two is to get them inside one of these buildings that make up this massive cargo center just north of Hamad's passenger terminals. And the crew has to do it fast.

The extreme heat could kill some of the cargo. We carried over half a million animals last year. Narrator: Crews separate the animals into different rooms. These two white tiger cubs get their own. Sounds from other animals could rile them up.

They just came off an eight-hour flight from Johannesburg, South Africa. Mark: In advance, before we book any animal, we make sure that our vets are aware that they're coming in. So if there's a vet who happens to be a specialist in

tigers or lions or rhinos, whatever, we'll make sure that vet is available. Narrator: By law, these cubs need to have enough space to stand up, lie down, and turn around. In nine hours, they'll board an hour-long flight to Dubai.

Transporting animals by plane is considered the most humane way to move them, because it's the fastest. Plane tickets range in price from a couple hundred to thousands of dollars, depending on how much care the animal needs. But Mark says the airline doesn't charge for every animal.

This lion, for example, flew for free because it was being rescued from captivity in a zoo. Mark: We have carried tigers, lions, bears, hippos, rhinos from different facilities to bring them back into reserves, where they belong.

Narrator: Another room in the center houses the birds. There are 300 here today. They came in on the same flight as the tiger cubs. They're heading to Lebanon. Qatar Airways flies about 6,000 birds every year.

But it does limit which animals it will bring on board, like none for lab testing, and no endangered ones unless they're being rewilded. About 80% of the animals the airline flies are actually pets, mostly dogs and cats. Staff have to measure the pets first

to make sure their kennels are the right size. Animals can die from stress if they're kept in cages that are too small. The animal center has eight vets on every shift. Mark: We make sure the owner knows when the animal's been

loaded, when the animal's been unloaded, if they're in transit, how they're doing. We even send pictures to show them, "Here's how your animal's doing." Narrator: Every year, about 10,000 horses pass

through the cargo center. They agitate easily, so the staff have to get creative. Sometimes they play soothing music. Mark: To help calm them down. These stalls for the horses are padded so that the horses, since they're standing

so much, it's easier on their feet. Narrator: This 150-pound Neapolitan Mastiff flew in from Dublin and is headed to Melbourne. These two spaniels came from Sydney on a 15-hour flight.

They're about to board their next flight, an eight-hour flight to Lisbon. But before they can board, staff need to secure them. That happens here. They put most of the cargo, including animals, onto an aluminum base

and fasten it with hooks. A net goes on top to keep the cages extra steady in case of turbulence. Crews need to leave extra space on the pallet so the animals get enough airflow and oxygen. Service dogs are allowed to fly in the cabin.

So are falcons. They even get their own passports. Most pets have to fly in cargo. Those tickets usually cost between $200 and $400. The airline also flies fresh food, which accounts for about 20% of its cargo, like these packs

of Norwegian salmon. They can't wait on the tarmac in Qatar's blazing heat, either.  Drugs would spoil, too. So they all need special storage inside the climate-controlled wing.

Sean: This building is split into four zones with two temperature ranges: 15 to 25 and 2 to 8 degrees Celsius for meat products, pharmaceutical products, perishable products, flowers, etc. I would love to come in here all the time. Narrator: About one-third of the cargo this airline carries

requires extra-special care. Think things like ammunition, oil and gas equipment, even human remains and radioactive materials. That's also part of what we call dangerous goods. You know, dangerous goods; it's scary. We don't want anything to ever go wrong.

Narrator: But the majority of the cargo the airline flies is actually mail. Mark: A lot of e-commerce we carry nowadays. Also, it's Amazon, Shein, Temu, and everybody. Narrator: At each of these cargo gates, all the pallets get sorted,

broken down, and separated. Crews call all of these giant packs unit load devices, or ULDs. All the boxes on this one ULD have the same flight, so they take a ride on massive elevators to this waiting area.

But if the boxes inside have different connecting flights, like on this ULD, crews unpack and separate them. They break down about 850 of these every day. Sean: We have workstations that are lowerable down by 1.25 meters,

and that makes it a lot easier to break down that freight and handle the cargo. Narrator: They randomly select up to 800 of them to send here for an X-ray. That's to make sure the weight on the label matches the

cargo's actual weight. The airline says the total weight of the cargo load can't exceed about 230,000 pounds for its planes to take off safely. If the weights match, they sort the packages into one of these cages to join other ones

with the same connecting flight. When it's time to fly, the packages are built into new ULDs that will perfectly fit the curved belly of the plane. The loading team uses this elevator platform to get the pallet even with the cargo hold.

A rolling track helps it slide right in, while this rubber wheel, called the power drive unit, takes the brunt of the weight so workers don't have to push these heavy pallets. These small hooks lock the pallets in place. Mark says the heaviest ULD needs to go in the middle.

It can weigh up to 17 tons, about twice the weight of some cruise ship anchors. Mark: If we're putting a jet engine on the aircraft, because it's so heavy and so dense, you can't put cargo in front of it,

because the aircraft would then be tilted. Narrator: For cargo workers on airlines around the world, weight might be the biggest challenge. When you're flying, it's not just your bags on the bottom. There's also cargo. Narrator: Most air cargo flies under passenger planes.

Everything else goes on freighter planes, which don't carry passengers. Lufthansa and Pan Am were some of the first airlines to use them, starting in the 1940s. But the industry didn't really take off until the early 1970s,

shortly after Boeing introduced its 747, which was the widest aircraft at the time. Its loading deck opens up like this, so huge freight can roll right in. One 747 can weigh about a million pounds with cargo. But sending stuff on planes used to be more expensive,

because freighters were pretty rare. As more airlines added them to their fleets, which also became more fuel-efficient, the additional supply started pushing air freight prices down. That's why the teams make sure they maximize the space.

The freight part of the business is much more complex than the passenger side. Narrator: One thing that can make it easier on cargo facilities? Sticking to just one type of plane.

Mark: That makes it easier and more efficient, because each aircraft has a unique shape. If you have different shapes, you have to rebuild the pallet. Narrator: That's why Qatar Airways wants to eventually fly only 777s.

Lifting all this cargo into the air takes two of the most powerful jet engines ever made. Just one costs $24 million. That's part of what makes these carriers so expensive.

Mark: These things are not cheap to operate. So an investment in a cargo facility and a cargo fleet is a massive capital investment, as well as a very big operating expense.

Narrator: Fuel alone consumes about $6.9 billion a year, more than 2.5 times what the airline spends on employee pay and benefits.

So we're always looking at ways to reduce our fuel burn and carbon footprint. Narrator: Qatar Airways hopes the 50 new Boeing 777-8Fs it ordered will help it reduce freighter emissions by 25%.

Mark: We are currently planning to build a facility that will more than double the capacity we have here. Narrator: Worldwide, planes transport about $6 trillion worth of goods annually.

That accounts for about 35% of world trade, even though they move just a tiny fraction of the cargo transported annually.

Ships, which can carry much larger loads cheaply, move the bulk of it. But demand for air freight is going up because of e-commerce, which requires fast delivery times. And ships can take weeks to arrive. Right now, there are about 2,200 freighter planes operating

worldwide, and reports project that will increase by about 75% by 2041. As for Mark, he hopes to hop on board one day.  I haven't flown on a cargo aircraft yet, and I've talked to our chief pilot about it.

I've got to find the right opportunity to do that. Narrator: But for now, he's just eager to see what they'll be challenged to fly next. Mark: You can come down here and see an incredible car that's being shipped.

You can see a new version of an electric Mercedes. You can see an exotic car, you can see an antique car, and I've got to tell you, that's really cool.

How The World’s Largest Animal Cargo Hub Handles 500,000 A Year | Big Business | Business Insider

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How The World’s Largest Animal Cargo Hub Handles 500,000 A Year | Big Business | Business Insider

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