Kenya Airways has earlier today confirmed that the airline, in cooperation with Qantas, the Australian national airline, has been contracted to uplift as many as 30 tons of cut flowers a month from Nairobi to Australia.
The flowers, on the final sector to Melbourne and Sidney, will be carried by Qantas which will receive the flowers at a waypoint served by both airlines, namely Johannesburg.
Kenya Airways serves Johannesburg several times a day with wide body aircraft capable of uplifting palletized cargo such as flowers in a temperature controlled environment and so does Qantas on the final leg across the Indian Ocean.
Commenting on the new service, KQ Cargo sales manager Ms. Patricia Odida noted that Kenya Airways flourishing relationship with the Australian airline has enabled the success of the new service to uplift flowers via Johannesburg into Sydney and Melbourne.
‘This is a major game changer for Kenya, in terms of increasing trade exports of flowers to nontraditional markets. This partnership opens up the Australian market for exporters and is a business opportunity for us to generate revenue‘ she said.
‘Previously exporters relied on other carriers, but when we got into an interline agreement with Qantas, we have seen the market grow and demand is steadily increasing. We are now working on an additional gateway through Bangkok‘ she then concluded.
KQ Cargo continues to pursue more opportunities in the fast-growing flower business in the Far East countries including shipments to the major Chinese consumer markets in Beijing, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shanghai, the latter also served through code share agreements.
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