SPA Facilitates Trade Between Hunan and Africa

On March 15, the first shipment of goods was exported to Africa through bellyhold operations under the special pro-rate agreement (SPA). The goods were transported by the China Southern Airlines via the Changsha-Nairobi flight to Kenya, and then delivered to Nigeria by the Kenya Airways.

Compared to the conventional unimodal transport mode, SPA enables airlines to extend their route network to destinations where some carriers cannot reach directly. In addition, the agreement can achieve reasonable allocation of airline capacity, allowing for collaboration between different carriers and enhancing flight carrying rate.

China Southern Airlines and Kenya Airways entered into a special pro-rate agreement, aiming to cooperate in multimodal transport. Under the agreement, China Southern Airlines is in charge of flight service between Changsha and Kenya, while Kenya Airways is responsible for the service between Kenya and Nigeria. According to a person in charge of the China Southern Airlines, the protocol helps expand the company's market in Africa and reduce the shipping time by eight to twelve hours compared to conventional transport modes.

Changsha Huanghua Airport Customs Authority will continue to support more airlines using the transportation mode under SPA and further expand China-Africa logistics channel.