1,500 Tonnes of Roses on Board

Lufthansa Cargo flying 40 million roses for Valentine’s Day

On Sunday, people all over the world will be offering flowers to their loved ones for Valentine’s Day. Lufthansa Cargo is currently flying entire freighters filled with beautiful roses to ensure that the millions of declarations of love will not have to go without the scent of fresh roses. The Lufthansa Group’s cargo airline will be transporting over 1,500 tonnes of the sensitive product this year. That is equivalent to about 40 million roses or the capacity of 16 flights with the MD-11 freighter.

Lufthansa Cargo always adds special charter flights to its regular flight schedule in February – this year with flights from Quito and Nairobi to Frankfurt – to meet the high demand on Valentine's Day. Europe’s leading cargo airline developed its special Fresh/td product especially for the shipment of perishable products, such as flowers and food, and has all the very latest equipment and facilities

The roses’ journey usually starts in Kenya and South America. These countries offer the best conditions for growing roses, with an ideal climate all year around. Sophisticated logistics ensures that the roses are quickly and carefully transported from the countries where they are cultivated to their final destinations: The roses are harvested at the flower farms several times a day and then immediately placed in water and cooled. After being sorted and packaged, the flowers are sent straight to the airport and the perfectly cooled cargo holds of the freighters. The roses’ stay at Frankfurt Airport is but a short one and they usually find themselves in the hands of romantics all over Europe within a few hours of landing at the city on the Main.