Cargolux carried the flowers to Luxembourg from Ecuador and Columbia to link with an ABC flight to Moscow.

This is the latest shipment of flowers delivered into the Russian market by AirBridge. On August, 30th 2004, the airline delivered 11 tonnes of flowers from Ecuador and Colombia for the first school day in Russia on September 1st and now carries flowers to Moscow each week.

“The importation of flowers and indeed all perishables, such as fruits and vegetables, are an important part of the future development of ABC. In our opinion it is important to set up a perishables handling facility at one of the major Moscow airports and in Krasnoyarsk. This would ensure the quality of perishables to international standards and be to the benefit of all Russian importers,” - said Stan Wraight, Managing Director of AirBridge Cargo.

Around 60% of all flowers sold in Russia are grown in Latin America, especially Ecuador and Colombia. To manage the transportation of flowers from these countries to Russia through Europe, AirBridge Cargo signed an interline agreement with Cargolux and Lan Chile to deliver the cargo to Frankfurt or Luxemburg airports to connect with ABC services. At these points AirBridge picks up the cargo for a timely onward delivery to the Moscow, airports of Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo.

ABC is also close to signing an agreement with another partner airline to begin flying flowers from Israel.