Latin America boosts air cargo… again
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The sudden spike in air cargo from Latin America explained
Air cargo is a funny thing. We tend to think of peak months being summer and around the holidays, but this isn’t always the case.
As part of the February Aircraft Intelligence Monthly, we looked at how the Red Sea security issues brought by the Houthi attacks is affecting air cargo. We found some effects.
The Middle East and Asia are seeing supply chain disruptions due to the Red Sea. But there is one other region that showed a very strong reaction to air cargo volumes in the past month: Latin America.
If the Suez Canal is down 40%, the Panama Canal isn’t faring much better. In fact, the Panama Canal saw a 36% reduction in shipping volumes last year.
But that doesn’t explain the spike in Latin American air cargo. When looking back, we were clued into the culprit – flowers.
The United States has a voracious appetite for flowers at very specific times of the year: February and May – Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day.
Where do the majority of the flowers come from? Latin America. Particularly Colombia.
Looking at Bogota cargo volumes to the United States by month, the only four months that exceed the average are January, February, April, and May.
The flowers are shipped north in bulk where they are then sent to the express carriers of FedEx, UPS, and DHL to distribute around the country.
In a prior life working in network planning at DHL, it was my job to align aircraft capacity to be able to handle the large influx of flowers. Most arrived in Miami, but southern California also has a domestic industry. The volume easily tripled normal levels, requiring early trucks to be driven overnight and additional airplanes to be waiting for the flowers.
Flowers are big business for Latin America. How big?
But even amid the two rushes of flowers northbound each year, the competition isn’t even close. Mother’s Day almost doubles Valentine’s Day in flower volume.
The sweetheart is celebrated in the United States, but nothing compares to mom.
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