On April 3, a B757-200 all-cargo flight operated by a Russian airline departed with a full load from Huahu Airport in Ezhou, Hubei, and flew to Sheremetyevo International Airport in Moscow, carrying 22 bags of mails with a total of 304.4 kilograms. This marks that Hubei Postal Branch has succeeded in the whole-process testing of transporting mail on the international air route at Ezhou Huahu Airport for the first time. It is also a crucial step Hubei Postal Branch has taken in exploring the “dual hub” mail operation mode at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport and Ezhou Huahu Airport.

Under the guidance and support of China Post Group Parcel, Express and Logistics Business Unit and Wuhan Customs District, the International Business Company of Parcel, Express and Logistics Business Unit of Hubei Postal Branch fully coordinated with Hubei Airports Group Company, the Customs stationed at Wuhan mail center, Ezhou Customs authorities and Ezhou Shunjia International Cargo Terminal. The first batch of transferred mails was dispatched from Wuhan Mail Unit to the international cargo terminal at Ezhou Huahu Airport in accordance with customs supervision requirements. After customs inspection and security checks, the mails smoothly entered the outbound cargo warehouse for transportation. Till then, both the information flow and physical flow of mail transfer were successfully tested, and the first international mail dual-airport transfer and dispatch was successfully completed.

In January this year, Huahu Airport opened an Ezhou-Moscow international cargo route, which was the first operated by a non-competitive airline at Huahu Airport. In the near future, Huahu Airport will open another four similar international routes. Hubei Postal Branch will make full use of the resources of the bellyholds at Tianhe International Airport and the ULDs (Unit Load Device) of cargo flights at Huahu Airport to achieve “dual hub” dispatching of international mail.

In recent years, Hubei Postal Branch has gradually improved its international mail dispatching network. Consequently, the number of local direct mail routes has increased from four at the beginning of last year to twenty-one at present, with mails directly dispatched from local ports accounting for 70 percent of the total, an increase of 38 percentage points compared with the beginning of last year. And the unit price of air transportation has decreased by 42 percent compared with the beginning of last year. Thus, Hubei Postal Branch has improved the overall time limit of international mail and boosted the service capabilities of the ports while reducing costs and increasing efficiency.