The cargo team works with customers or months to work out tonnage levels so the airline can determine whether additional flights will be required during the peak flower phase, which runs approximately between 17 January and 7 February.
Like last year, the pandemic affected available capacity and resources, posing an additional challenge during planning.
The USA, Europe, Russia and Australia are the main destinations out of Quito and Bogota, but they had less capacity, meaning three additional Quito-Miami flights and four more from Quito to Europe and onward to Doha.
Flights from Quito complemented five regular freighter services and Colombia was served by its two scheduled flights per week from Bogota.
Temperature-controlled onforwarding is required to ensure that the flowers arrive and fresh and on time at their end destinations.
Ian Morgan, Vice President Cargo Americas at Qatar Airways Cargo says: “We use road feeder services from where the flights operate into Europe to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where the logistics are set-up for Russia and other Eastern European countries.”
In Kenya, Qatar Airways Cargo has been involved in transporting flowers from Nairobi for more than 10 years.
The season starts at the end of January and continues to around 9 February, travelling to Liege and then being trucked to Amsterdam.
An additional 13 Boeing 777 Freighter charter flights operate alongside scheduled freighter and passenger flights during the season.
Nicolas Danton, Regional Cargo Manager Africa at Qatar Airways Cargo says: “A lot of coordination is required to arrange the charters with the authorities, and to handle the extra volumes and flights during that period.”