Cyprus trees grown at a nursery in Germany and destined to improve the landscape of Uzbekistan’s capital city Tashkent made up the latest unusual cargo to be transported by Volga-Dnepr Airlines.
The 28 trees, each 7.5 metres tall, were transported to Brno in the Czech Republic for the flight to Uzbekistan onboard one of Volga-Dnepr’s IL-76TD-90VD freighters for the Russian logistics company Haltec-Avia.
Vyacheslav Shakhov, sales executive of Volga-Dnepr, says: “Our main priority was to transport the trees in the shortest possible timescale. They were packed in protective boxes that were too tall to be loaded using the aircraft’s onboard crane system so we brought in our own special loading equipment which enabled us to load them using the aircraft’s ramp and rail system and a forklift truck.”
The trees are being planted as part of a landscape reconstruction project in Tashkent as part of the city’s preparations to host the 2016 Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit.
