Hunan opens first air cargo route to South America

A fully-loaded cargo plane took off from the Changsha Huanghua International Airport towards St. Paulo, Brazil, on March 16 afternoon. This was Hunan’s first air cargo route to South America. Hence, Changsha has expanded international air logistics in North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.

The route will see one flight weekly, using the B747 freighter, with a one-way air freight transport capacity of about 105 tons. The first flight carried 94 tons of exported goods, among which 59 tons were made in Hunan, such as computer accessories and integrated circuits. With a total length of 19,000 kilometers and one-way flight time of 26 hours, the route is currently the longest all-cargo air route in China.

The exported goods by this route will mainly include high value-added products, such as medicines and mechanical and electrical products. The imported goods it will bring back include specialty fruits, frozen fresh food, and meat products of South America.

St. Paulo is the largest city in South America, and also an important air transport hub. This route will serve as a “bridge in the air” between Changsha and St. Paul. With it, China’s exports to Brazil will not need to detour to North America for transfer. “It will facilitate Hunan products to go global, attract South American partners in cross-border e-commerce, such as SHOEPP and SHEIN, and boost industrial clusters transformation,” said a person in charge of the logistics port office of the Changsha Municipal People’s Government.

At present, the regular international cargo flights from Changsha to Moscow, New York, and Los Angeles are operated normally. This year, some flights which were suspended due to the pandemic will be resumed, and more than 6 international air cargo routes will be launched. The number of waypoints on the operating air routes will exceed ten this year, and the cargo throughput of the Changsha airport will achieve one million tons.

Translator: Pang Yuehui