The iconic Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons once again soared above the streets of New York City thanks to helium supplied by Linde North America, Inc.

“Linde is proud to be a long-standing partner of Macy’s for this landmark event,” says Chris Ebeling, VP of sales and Marketing, Linde North America, Inc. “This partnership highlights Linde’s commitment to safely and reliably deliver our products and services to meet our customer needs. We are delighted to work with Macy’s every year to keep improving the parade for everyone’s enjoyment.”

Linde supplied some 300,000 cubic feet of helium to the parade this year, the 23rd consecutive year of its partnership with Macy’s. The helium used to fill the iconic balloons began its journey at the Linde Otis plant, located in Kansas. The plant refines crude helium purchased from the US Bureau of Land Management, as well as from private producers that extract it from natural gas fields in the US. The helium was then purified and liquefied for shipment across the country to Bethlehem PA where Linde operates a helium transfill facility. Here the liquefied helium was converted to gas and compressed into four high-pressure tube trailers that were trucked to New York City.

On the day before the Parade, Linde and Macy’s staff assembled near the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, where workers inflated the balloons using a gas filling apparatus Linde has customized for the parade. And then early Thanksgiving morning the balloons were topped off with helium and poised for the parade.

“Our signature giant character balloons take flight thanks to our long-standing partnership with Linde, that breathes life into fan favorites every year,” says Susan Tercero, group VP for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “On Thanksgiving Day, 17 giant characters’ balloons and 28 legacy/novelty creations will ignite the imagination of more than 3.5 million spectators lining the parade route and more than 50 million watching on television, and that is due in part to the great work of our two teams.”