With Valentine’s Day just round the corner, carriers all over the world are filling their aircraft with roses for romantics around the globe.
Lufthansa Cargo is filling entire freighters with flowers, connecting flower-growing countries with its Frankfurt hub several times a week, with charter flights from cities including Quito and Nairobi.
It transports 1,000 tonnes of roses a year, enough to fill 12 Boeing MD-11 Freighters, and developed its Fresh/td product and equipped aircraft with technology specifically for transporting goods such as flowers and food.
American Airlines Cargo began worldwide shipments for Valentine’s Day during the first week of February and will transport 10 – 15 tonnes of fresh cut flowers out of Amsterdam during those couple of weeks.
American Airlines Cargo sales regional manager Northern Europe, Andy Cornwell says: “The first five months of the year are the busiest for the flower industry. Essentially, Valentine’s Day, Easter and Mother’s Day all drive demand and require that we go the extra mile to deliver on the needs of our customers—and, ultimately, their customers.”
American will start direct Dallas Fort Worth – Amsterdam services on 5 May to support the growing flower and perishables, and in time for Mother’s Day in the US.
Over at Emirates SkyCargo, one of its Boeing 777 Freighters has been painted with a unique rose decal, flying to Nairobi to be loaded with flowers headed to Amsterdam.
It has operated four additional freighter flights in addition to the daily service from Nairobi, bringing almost 350 additional tonnes of flowers into Amsterdam, as well as extra capacity on the thrice-weekly service between Quito and Amsterdam.
UPS expects to deliver 89 million flowers this year, enough to fill 64 Boeing 747 Freighters, with 90 per cent of imports travelling from Latin America via Miami.
UPS Americas Region air cargo marketing manager, Domingo Mendez says: “We understand shipping flowers is a time-sensitive business. We’re adding 34 temperature-controlled flights to deliver the 236,000 boxes of blooms expected to flow through our network in the two weeks prior to Valentine’s Day.”
Source:
http://www.aircargoweek.com/love-air-airlines-fly-roses-valentines-day/
