At 2:00 a.m. on June 26 (Beijing Time), a B777F cargo aircraft of China Postal Airlines loaded with mail and goods took off from Nanjing Lukou International Airport in Jiangsu, and flew to Luxembourg-Findel International Airport. This marks that China Post has officially opened its first independently operated intercontinental air route.

Liu Aili, chairman of China Post Group Corporation Limited, said at the site of the route opening event, the opening of the “Nanjing-Luxembourg” intercontinental air route is an important initiative of China Post to optimize the market layout of RCEP member countries and the Belt and Road countries (regions), develop a secure, reliable and independently controllable international logistics supply chain system, and serve the “dual circulation” development pattern. This route will effectively reduce the overall time limit of Europe-bound mail, enhance the international competitiveness of China Post as the “national team” of the industry, improve its capabilities to participate in international logistics, and highlight the powerful role of China Post as the only State-owned enterprise in the field of express and logistics.

At 12:33 p.m. (Beijing Time, 6:33 a.m. local time) on June 26, China Postal Airlines flight CF255 arrived at Luxembourg-Findel International Airport. The flight carried industrial machinery, spare parts and big-ticket items sent to Europe by China’s manufacturing and cross-border e-commerce clients, with a flying range of 9,300 kilometers across seven time zones. Located in northwestern Europe, and bordered by Germany on the east, France on the south and Belgium on the west and north, Luxembourg is known as the cargo logistics center and hub of Europe. With the opening of the “Nanjing-Luxembourg” intercontinental air route, China Post’s Europe-bound trunk lines for international mail, foreign trade cargoes and cross-border e-commerce goods have covered 36 European countries, with overall time limit for transportation toward major European countries and regions shortened to four to seven days, thereby meeting the shipping needs of its manufacturing and cross-border e-commerce clients in an all-round manner. This intercontinental air route will become an “Air Silk Road” for express and freight across China and Europe, and facilitate boosting the status and value of Nanjing Lukou International Airport as an international air cargo hub.

In recent years, China Post has been committed to enhancing its air capacity and building an independently controllable air delivery network. The B777F cargo aircraft operating the “Nanjing-Luxembourg” flight is the first large wide-body freighter introduced by China Post last year. With a maximum takeoff weight of 347 tonnes, and a maximum traffic payload of 102 tonnes, which is 6.8 times that of a Boeing 737, while the hourly fuel consumption being only 3.3 times that of a Boeing 737, the B777F aircraft is very cost efficient and leads the industry in both flight performance and transport capacity. Currently, China Postal Airlines has a fleet of more than 40 aircraft, including two B777F cargo aircraft.

Apart from the “Nanjing-Luxembourg” air route, China Post will, centering on Nanjing Lukou International Airport and Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport, open intercontinental air routes to Oceania and North America successively. Consequently, it will gradually build an independently operated international air network radiating Europe, North America, Southeast Asia and East Asia, so as to improve the stability and security of the international logistics supply chain, facilitate Chinese manufacturing and brands to go global, and continue to make contributions to the high-quality development of China’s aviation logistics industry and export-oriented economy.

Since China Post launched the “Beijing-Seoul” air route—the first international route independently operated by China Postal Airlines, on August 3, 2006, China Postal Airlines has been operating more than 20 independent international (regional) air routes presently.