AirBridgeCargo satisfies Russia’s demand for flowers

ROMANTIC Russians provided a business boost for AirBridgeCargo Airlines (ABC), the country’s largest cargo carrier, with a big rise in floral imports ahead of St Valentine’s Day.
ABC transported some 1,400 tonnes of cut-flowers from Amsterdam to Moscow, an 18 per cent increase over the same period in 2013.
Denis Ilin, executive president of AirBridgeCargo, notes: “The demand for flowers in Russia is buoyant. The market is worth over US$1 billion a year and more than 75 per cent of cut-flowers are imported.
“That makes our scheduled B747 freighter services linking Amsterdam and Russia’s largest cities the first choice for flowers importers that need a fast and reliable delivery service to ensure the freshness of their products,” he adds.
ABC is the largest importer of flowers to Russia, transporting 16,000 tonnes a year.
The vast majority of cargo traffic goes to the Russian Far East: Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Krasnojarsk, and Khabarovsk.
International Women’s Day in March will see another peak in cut-flowers traffic for ABC.