Cainiao Network, Alibaba Group’s logistics arm, will start its first China-Spain trade route, in partnership with cargo carrier Volga-Dnepr Group (VDG).

The new route, Cainiao said, support the booming cross-border deliveries, which has been intensified during the COVID-19 lockdown period when consumers refocused from offline to online shopping.

Flight schedules

Starting from August, AirBridgeCargo Airlines, which is part of VDG will operate three weekly Hong Kong-Madrid flights via Liege, Belgium, connecting Cainiao’s Hong Kong and Liege Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP) hubs.

This would accelerate the delivery time of merchandise from China to Europe by 30%.

Meanwhile, facilitated by Cainiao’s extensive Line Haul network, it said all goods will be delivered within 10 days in Europe.

“Cainiao has been working with partners globally to raise logistics efficiency and optimize user experience,” said William Xiong, Cainiao's chief strategist and general manager of Export Logistics.

“This year, Cainiao plans to launch 1,260 chartered flights to safeguard cross-border logistics and help Chinese merchants sell globally,” he added.

Cainiao noted further that since 2018, it has been closely working with Cainiao Network to develop fast, flexible, and cost-efficient solutions, expanding our network, realigning commercial and operational issues, choosing the most appropriate freighter type, and fueling up our digital solutions.

“We will further support Cainiao with the fleet of best-in-class 39 freighters to accommodate the sky-rocketing e-commerce volumes, which have tripled within the Group for the first five months of 2020 and surpassed the mark of 20,000 tons,” highlighted Tatyana Arslanova, Executive operating Officer, VDG.

Cainiao offers a total of10 newly-opened international routes connecting various Chinese cities with Moscow, Liege, Riga, Siberia, Kuala Lumpur, New York, Madrid, Sao Paulo, Santiago and other countries and regions up to now.