Cargolux Airlines International S.A. has announced it has changed the routing of its flower flights from South America to pass directly to Amsterdam rather than Maastricht.
The Luxembourg cargo carrier claimed that the move permitted the airline to enhance its service offering and strengthen its commitment to its customers in this product segment, with up to 90% of the capacity on these flights filled with goods for the Dutch market.
A direct flight to Amsterdam aims to reduce transit times, as flowers previously had to be trucked from Maastricht, whilst growing the operation in the Netherlands also enables Cargolux to operate more flexibly in the Dutch export markets for products that are difficult to transport by road.
Cargolux has now been serving the South American perishables markets for 17 years, having operated its first charter flight to Bogota in September 1997, for a large flower producer. This led to weekly flights to Colombia and Quito came online in December 1997, served with feeder flights by Aerosucre. A secod weekly service was introduced in February 1998. Flights to Bogota became scheduled services in late 2000; Cargo Link and Mawney became Cargolux GSAs. Finally, Latacunga became a new destination in December 2000.
Cargolux flies around 95 tonnes of flowers from Latacunga and Bogota to the Netherlands weekly, where they are sold near Schiphol on the famous Aalsmeer auctions.
Photo by Cargolux
