LATAM Cargo announced that it has carried more than 9,000 tons of flowers for the 2019 Valentine’s Day season. More than 140 LATAM Cargo planes took off from Colombia and Ecuador carrying flowers for this year’s Valentine’s day, which along with Mother’s Day represents the peak of fresh flower export activity.
Red and pink roses, mixed bouquets, carnations, chrysanthemums, iris, gypsophila and greenery were all in high demand this Valentine’s Day season. The flowers were transported from Bogota and Medellin in Colombia and from Quito in Ecuador to destinations in North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Oceania. This connectivity was made possible thanks to the 140 destinations that make up the LATAM Cargo network, linking Latin America to the rest of the world.
“Valentine’s Day and Mothers’ Day are peak periods where LATAM Cargo demonstrates its leadership in Latin America by successfully completing a highly complex operation,” said Felipe Caballero, commercial director for Central and Northern South America, LATAM Cargo.
“We have the expertise to increase frequencies and meet our customers’ needs,” he said. “We are dynamic and rigorous in our operation, and even when demand spikes, we can tackle the challenge of maintaining the cold chain so that these flowers retain their freshness and quality. In this way, we are helping to boost Colombia’s and Ecuador’s positions as major global producers of fresh flowers.”
To satisfy demand, LATAM Cargo increased its cargo frequencies in Colombia from 12 to 23 flights during the busiest week. Similarly, in Ecuador, the company boosted its frequencies from 10 to 31 cargo flights during peak operation times. In total, they more than doubled transport options for 4,180 tons of fresh flowers from Colombia and 4,920 from Ecuador.
The main importer of flowers was the United States. Miami FL was particularly relevant, as it received 8,050 tons, equivalent to 88% of the flowers transported by LATAM Cargo during the Valentine’s Day holiday, almost doubling regular traffic. Miami is one of the world’s largest distribution hubs and home to the cargo operations of LATAM Airlines Group.
Miami was trailed only by Amsterdam with 500 tons, and Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Madrid and Paris to lesser extents. Flowers were also flown into New York, Santiago and New Zealand, among other destinations.
See www.latamcargo.com for more details.
