ATRAN Airlines, an express air cargo carrier within Volga-Dnepr Group, has expanded its network in China adding Shijiazhuang  — the largest city of North China's Hebei Province — into its loop.

In a statement, the carrier said it intends to operate the flights on a weekly basis to Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow (Russia) where it is based.

The maiden flight was operated on the August 8 and it lifted almost 15 tons of e-commerce-related consolidated cargo.

ATRAN is planning to deploy both types of its freighters – Boeing 737-400SF and Boeing 737-800BCF – to guarantee high-quality services for its customers and final consignees who expect on-time delivery of their online purchases.

Boom in e-commerce

"Amid lockdowns across various countries of the world with the closing of the most shops and movement restrictions within the cities, e-commerce came as a breath of fresh air when people were not lacking essentials and other items of their life," said Vilatiy Andreev, general director of ATRAN Airlines.

"With the demand for cargo operations being high, we experienced a considerable increase in e-commerce volumes for the first 6 months of this year. Not only do we attribute it to the strict measurements and decrease of passenger belly capacities, but rather to our stable development of long and middle terms contracts with our customers," he added.

With Shijiazhuang being the capital of Hebei Province and neighbouring Beijing and Tianjin to the north, the city covers the catchment area of North China.

After booming growth of e-commerce and its penetration across first-tier cities of China, second-tier cities, likes of Xi’an and Shijiazhuang, are becoming active game-players and accumulate stable traffic to Russia.

Shijiazhuang is the latest addition to ATRAN’s network which complements existing Xi’an, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Urumqi and Zhengzhou most effectively and will provide greater delivery options for ATRAN’s customers.