Love is in the air for American Airlines Cargo
12 / 02 / 2018
American Airlines is gearing up for one of its busiest holidays of the year, shipping flowers, plants, chocolates and gifts all around the globe to help millions of people celebrate Valentine’s Day.
The airline said that although it flies flowers and other perishable goods year round, the first half of February is especially busy.
Throughout 2017, the airline shipped more than 18m pounds of flowers alone, roughly 25 tons each day.
“Considering a typical flower weighs less than 10 grams, that’s a mind-boggling amount of blossoming cargo,” American said.
“The most popular flowers around Valentine’s Day tend to be carnations, mini-carnations, roses and tropical flowers, like calla lilies.
“While Valentine’s Day flowers come from countries all across the world, they’re one of the most popular exports from Latin America.
“That’s particularly true from locations such as Ecuador, Costa Rica and Colombia, where warm weather creates an ideal year-round growing season.”
In 2017, American Airlines Cargo shipped more than 10m pounds of flowers out of Amsterdam (AMS) into the US.
The airline expects that total to grow in 2018 after it launched a new direct seasonal service from AMS to Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW).
“Thanks to Valentine’s Day and other major holidays, like Mother’s Day and the Chinese New Year, demand for Valentine’s Day flowers in the US remains steady,” the carrier said.
It added that it had seen increased demand for flowers across the rest of the American network, from Central America to China, Japan and the UK, and then from Europe to North America.
“Transporting delicate, fresh-cut flowers across the globe certainly requires a lot of attention and care,” said David Vance, American’s vice president of Cargo Operations.
“We have to constantly monitor minimum and maximum temperature exposure throughout the entire routing process, and we have to meet very specific requirements to help ensure every flower’s freshness is properly preserved.”
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