Business is blooming leading up to Valentine’s Day. To get flowers, sweets and gifts to consumers and businesses by Feb. 14 it takes a global logistics network helping Cupid. This year, it’s estimated that UPS will deliver more than 89 million flowers – enough to fill 64 767 Boeing cargo aircraft – to loved ones around the world.

According to the National Retail Federation, U.S. consumers are projected to spend $2 billion on flowers and more than $18 billion on Valentine’s Day gifts.

Many of the tropical flowers and roses originate in Latin America, primarily Colombia and Ecuador. More than 90% of the imported flowers will travel through Miami International Airport, where UPS is the largest air cargo carrier. 

“Meeting our customers’ needs is at the heart of what we do,” said Domingo Mendez, Air Cargo marketing manager, UPS Americas Region. “We understand shipping flowers is a time-sensitive business. We’re adding 34 temperature-controlled flights to deliver the 236,000 boxes of blooms expected to flow through our network in the two weeks prior to Valentine’s Day.”

Vistaflor operates a flower farm in Colombia and depends on UPS to deliver flowers fast. “We need to provide our customers with the freshest flowers, so the less time in transit, the better,” said Victoria Hernandez, sales director at Vistaflor.

The flowers stay fresh in a refrigerated warehouse about the size of five basketball courts located in the UPS® Air Cargo facility in Miami, where they are inspected and sorted for travel to their final destinations.

Procrastinators can ship as late as Monday, Feb. 13 using UPS Next Day Air to have gifts arrive on Valentine’s Day. Click here for the UPS Valentine’s Day Shipping Calendar.