Whether it’s flying mushrooms to Goose Bay, Labrador, or loading cherries from British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley to deliver around the world, the cargo holds on Air Canada commercial flights are increasingly packed with fresh food. We ship more than 100 million kg of fresh products yearly (23 percent of all Air Canada Cargo shipments) including lobsters loaded in Halifax and pallets of salmon from Norway. Our flying shopping cart also brings cucumbers, peppers and eggplant from Europe and picks up asparagus, herbs and mangoes from Lima, Peru. We even have our own freezer section: Air Canada’s AC Cool Chain™ services keep containers chilled with dry ice or electric temperature control.
Delicious Cargo
I’m from Canada’s blueberry capital, Nova Scotia, and China is a huge importer of these seasonal berries. Air Canada Cargo carries 10 million kg of fresh produce to Shanghai, Beijing and Hong Kong each year.
Air Canada’s largest Boeing 787 Dreamliners can carry up to 75 percent more cargo by weight than the Boeing 767s they replace.
Thousands of live lobster are shipped out of Air Canada’s Halifax warehouse every year, making the tight connection from ocean floor to far–flung hotel plate.
Photo: Reynard Li
Doug Morris is an author, meteorologist, instructor and Air Canada captain on the Boeing 787.