By end of February, cargo planes carrying fresh-cut flowers from South America will fly directly to Pittsburgh International Airport for wholesale distribution across the Midwest and Northeast, executives with a startup air freight company said Tuesday.
Pilgrim Air Cargo Inc. said it plans to fly DC-8s or Boeing 747s once or twice a week from South America to Pittsburgh International's Cargo Terminal A in Moon.
Lack of passenger business because of US Airways dramatic downsizing has caused hardship at Pittsburgh International. In this case, however, the resulting lack of airport congestion -- and the facility's proximity to 50 percent of the U.S. flower purchasing market -- were winning qualities.
"Pittsburgh is our 'secret sauce,' " said Douglas Grossinger, executive vice president for corporate development for Pilgrim Air, which also considered basing its operations in St. Louis or Chicago. Compared to Miami International Airport, where most air imports from South American land and endure extended delays, he said Pittsburgh International cargo crews have committed to swiftly unload the perishable freight onto trucks.
"This is much more streamlined," Grossinger said. "It will allow us to build a business in way that's consistent and reliable."
Seventy percent of all cut flowers sold in the United States are grown in Colombia and Ecuador, according to the Wholesale Florist & Florist Supplier Association. International floriculture in those countries kicked into high gear in 1991 with a trade pact that aimed to offer Andean farmers alternatives to drug crops. That accord eliminated tariffs on roses, carnations and other fresh-cut flowers, which are flown to South Florida and trucked across the country in refrigerated tractor-trailers.
Pilgrim Air was formed by Boston entrepreneur Joe Germano and his father in partnership with pilot and businessman Jai Singh, also of Boston. Pilots from Colombia and air cargo owners from Tampa round out the top management, Grossinger said. He declined to put a dollar figure on the company's investment.
Bob Miller, director of Aviation Facilities Co. Inc.'s, which operates the Pittsburgh cargo terminals, said Pilgrim Air will lease as much as 30,000-square-feet of space in Cargo Terminal A. Customs and Border Protection Service is housed in that terminal, which will ease inspections, he said. He expects the company to employ between 15 and 20 people locally.
One challenge for Pilgrim Air will be to find cargo for the return trip from Pittsburgh to points south. Grossinger said the company is developing a "backhaul" business in cargo that flies from New York's congested John F. Kennedy International Airport to Miami, where it will also be operating.
Bob Luthultz is president of the Pittsburgh Cut Flower Co., a Strip District-based wholesaler that sells to several hundred regional florists. He said shaving two or three days of truck transport from the supply chain would be great -- if the cost is about the same.
"That could translate into extended 'face time' of flowers in the home of consumers.' Luthultz said. "Any improvement in the time it takes to get flowers from Colombia into our local market is something we would be very interested in."
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