China - Recent

Storyline:
Chinese airlines add more int'l freight routes amid soaring cargo demand

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Chinese air carriers are actively expanding their international cargo networks to meet soaring global demand for air freight.

Data from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing shows that in the first half of the year, the country added 74 international air freight routes, including 39 to Asia, 17 to Europe and 15 to North America.

During the same period, China's total air cargo volume grew by more than 32 percent year on year to around 70 billion tonne-kilometers, with international routes accounting for more than 23 billion, up some 84 percent from a year ago.

Experts say the prolonged Red Sea shipping crisis has been a major factor behind the increase in demand for international air cargo.

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Cui Zhongfu, deputy head, China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing:

"Due to geopolitical conflicts, many consignors have switched from ocean freight to air freight, which has resulted in a strong demand for air freight. In general, with the same cargo volume, one to two percentage points of reduction in maritime transport will bring around 20-percent growth for air logistics."

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All the while, the country maintained regular cargo flights to 48 locations in 42 countries in H1 with the total number of such flights up 6 percent to more than 26,000.

Unscheduled flights are also on the rise, with 3,300 cargo charter flights delivering things like electric vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products to destinations worldwide.

That number represents a 9-percent rise from the same period last year and an 850-percent surge from 2019.

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Shang Kejia, official, Civil Aviation Administration of China:

"A sentiment that is prevalent in the air freight market is that the slow season is not slow at all. Both Chinese and foreign airlines are upbeat about the Chinese market. So currently we are seeing a sound growth momentum regarding scheduled cargo flights, but such a momentum is more obvious in terms of unscheduled cargo flights."

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And for domestic destinations, China’s civil air transport industry handled 47 billion tonne-kilometers of air freight in the first half of the year, marking a 16-percent increase from a year ago.

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