dnata’s blooming flower handling expertise takes flight in Amsterdam
Amsterdam, The Netherlands—Leading global air and travel services provider dnata handles up to 42,000 tons of delicate flowers each year from its advanced Amsterdam cargo facilities.
Orchids, chrysanthemums, and the ever-popular roses are the most popular types of 27,000 tons of flowers imported, arriving daily into the European continent from key source markets in East Africa and South America. One of the busiest times of the year is the two- to three-week window before Valentine’s Day in February, with multiple freight aircraft arriving each day to supply Europe’s love birds.
dnata’s Amsterdam facilities also manage the export of 15,000 tons of flowers annually, primarily the home-grown gerbera, gypsophila and peonies.
“Understanding our customers’ requirements is crucial to ensuring perishable items such as flowers preserve their freshness and longevity, maintaining the value for our customers. Our customer-oriented team and best-in-class facilities ensure that perishable cargo is processed quickly and efficiently throughout the transportation process,” said Jan van Anrooy, Managing Director, dnata Netherlands.
To keep temperature control of flowers, speed of handling while limiting manhandling of the product is key, from unloading off the aircraft, into the dnata facility and on to the trucks and freight forwarders. dnata’s highly-trained teams can typically empty a full freighter aircraft of flowers, and load them on to forwarding trucks in around 90 minutes. If required, dnata’s cool chain facilities at its Amsterdam hub provide cold storage to maintain freshness, before they are transported to market, auctioned and distributed throughout Europe.
dnata currently provides ground and cargo handling services to 37 airlines at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (AMS) with a team of 1,000 dedicated aviation professionals, who handle 10,000 flights and move 540,000 tonnes of cargo annually.
In 2024, dnata will significantly enhance its operations in The Netherlands by opening a fully automated cargo centre, dnata Cargo City Amsterdam at AMS. One of the largest and most advanced facilities of its kind, including certifications for sustainability and eco-friendly design, the 61,000 m2 facility will use cutting-edge technologies and be capable of processing over 850,000 tonnes of cargo annually. This will include perishables, pharmaceuticals, dangerous goods, mail, live animals, aircraft engines and vehicles.
Established in 1959, dnata offers quality and safe ground handling, cargo, travel, catering and retail services in 38 countries across six continents. In the financial year 2022-23, dnata’s customer-oriented teams handled over 710,000 aircraft turns, moved over 2.7 million tonnes of cargo, uplifted 111.4 million meals, and recorded a total transaction value (TTV) of travel services of US$ 1.9 billion.
