Busiest ever day for Perishables Centre (08/01/2001)

Consumer demand in the lead-up to Christmas and the New Year celebrations saw a record 344,180 kilos processed through British Airways World Cargo's Perishables Centre at Heathrow in a single day.

The record day - Sunday December 17, 2000 - beat the previous highest one-day total in December 1999 by more than 30,000 kilos.

Among the favourite items on the seasonal shopping lists of British consumers were strawberries from Israel, grapes from South America and South Africa, lobsters from New England, prepared fruits from West and South Africa and a wide selection of fish and vegetables from Africa and the Middle East.

British Airways helped speed up the distribution process by providing value added services such as labelling, sorting and packing at its Perishables Handling Centre. This enabled freshly arrived goods to go straight onto the shelves at Britain's major supermarkets without the delay of any further processing.

Tony Wright, British Airways World Cargo's perishables expert, said: "This is always our busiest time of the year but we even exceeded our own forecasts. In December, we also carried more than 700,000 kilos of grapes for the UK and European markets on six Boeing 747-400 freighter flights."

"On December 17, for one customer we transferred 73,000 kilos of fish into the Heathrow Border Inspection Post (BIP), sorted the shipment and despatched the entire load onto direct trucks to Spain. This is yet another demonstration of the speed and high quality we can deliver through the new centre."