Air France KLM Martinair Cargo transport 5000 tonnes of flowers
Aviation - Air France KLM Martinair Cargo recorded a significant boost in flower volumes over the five-week period (February/March) thus reaffirming its commitment to the flower market and meeting the seasonal peak flower demand for Valentine's Day and International Women's Day.
Mar 10, 2017: Air France KLM Martinair Cargo recorded a significant boost in flower volumes over the five-week period (February/March) thus reaffirming its commitment to the flower market and meeting the seasonal peak flower demand for Valentine's Day and International Women's Day.
Over a five-week period (February/March), around 5,000 tonnes of flowers originating from well-known leading production and export countries like Kenya, Ecuador and Colombia were flown to Europe, where Amsterdam remains Europe's logistics centre for the flower market, with Schiphol airport as the world's 'preferred Flower Hub', connecting all key production and consumer markets. The greatest share of additional capacity is mainly intended to supply the European (primarily Dutch, English, Italian, French and Russian) and Asian (Japanese) markets.
Royal FloraHolland, located in Aalsmeer, the Netherlands, is the largest trading centre for flowers in the world and plays a crucial role in onward distribution.
In 2016, AFKLMP Cargo shipped more than 60,000 tonnes of flowers from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ecuador and Colombia to Schiphol. Due to its high altitude, favourable climate and overall geographical location, Kenya offers perfect growing conditions for roses. Most of the roses (known as "Rhodas") are red roses with stems averaging 30 to 50 centimetres in length.
Marcel de Nooijer, Executive Vice President Air France KLM Martinair Cargo says, "With one extra full-charter freight flight, upgrading aircraft capacity and making full use of our extensive wide-body belly passenger network, AFKLMP Cargo is proud to show our ongoing commitment and dedication to the flower business, which has a proven history over so many decades".
To strengthen the 'preferred Flower Hub' position, AFKL Cargo last year has
formed the 'Holland Flower Alliance' together with Amsterdam Airport Schiphol and Royal FloraHolland.
Air France KLM Martinair Cargo offers the following main deck capacity: 3/7 BOG-AMS, 6/7 UIO-AMS, 5/7 NBO-AMS and 2/7 NBO-CDG. In addition, we offer an impressive volume of belly capacity on our passenger flights, with a total of 17 weekly frequencies from the three flower origins.