Fresh herbs flown daily to Seattle from Alaska

You never really know what your suitcase is snuggling up next to in the luggage area of commercial airplanes. On some flights, it could be fresh sage. On another, a case of very recently caught Alaskan Copper River salmon could be your bag's neighbor.

These days, HerbCo is shipping about 30,000 pounds of fresh herbs a week aboard Alaska Air's daily flights to Seattle. Cardboard boxes of organic herbs fill in the extra space not occupied by luggage in the plane's luggage hold. The plants fly to Seattle, where they are distributed or else shipped to other locations, according to Marianne Lindsey, a media spokeswoman for Alaska Airlines.

Most herb companies simply use ground transportation to move their product, Andrews said. Just like reserving a seat aboard a commercial aircraft can be costly, air shipping costs add up too. HerbCo pays about 50 cents a pound to ship the herbs.

"So yes, it is expensive. In fact, it's the most expensive way to do it," he said. "Trucking it is cheaper, but slower. And we deal in a product that is very perishable — basil will last on the shelf 10 days."

Also, when customers need a product quickly, HerbCo officials find it to be the preferred travel method. "Air freight is the way to do that," said Andrews, who went on to give kudos to the Alaska Air flight crew who handle the logistics of placing the plants on the planes. They don't have a cooler. So we have to bring it just before flight time. And they have to stage it, and there's more boxes than they have room, which is why the lobby smells so good."

In some cases, there's not enough room on the Alaska Airlines flights and Andrews trucks the herbs to Phoenix for distribution.

Source: desertsun.com