The first "professional cargo hub airport" in China — Ezhou Huahu Airport — in central China's Hubei Province has begun operations.

A Boeing 767-300 cargo plane took off from the Ezhou Huahu Airport in central on July 17 marking the start of operations at China's new cargo hub.

Chinese state media said it is the first professional cargo hub airport in Asia and the fourth of its kind in the world.

"The new airport, equipped with a cargo terminal of 23,000 square meters, a freight transit center of nearly 700,000 square meters, 124 parking stands, and two runways is expected to improve the transport efficiency of air freight and further promote the country's opening up," Xinhua said in a report.

The project team behind the airport has applied for more than 70 patents and copyrights for new technologies, such as 5G, big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, for making the new airport safer, greener, and smarter.

Airport function akin to Memphis Int'l Airport

It added that the functions of the Ezhou airport are benchmarked against the Memphis International Airport in the United States, one of the world's busiest cargo airports.

Chinese logistics service provider, SF Express holds a 46% stake in Hubei International Logistics Airport Co., Ltd., the operator of Ezhou Huahu Airport.

The report said SF Express, China's leading logistics service provider, plays a crucial role at the Ezhou airport, much like how FedEx Express handles the majority of cargo at the Memphis International Airport.

Xinhua noted that SF Express has independently built a freight transport transit center, a cargo sorting center, and an aviation base at the new airport. SF Express also plans to process the majority of its packages through the new airport in the future.

 Photo: Xinhua

"As a cargo hub, Ezhou Huazhu Airport will help SF Express to form a new comprehensive logistics network," the report added, quoting Pan Le, director of the airport's IT department.

"No matter where the destination is, all SF Airlines cargoes can be transferred and sorted in Ezhou before being flown to other cities in China," Le added, noting that such a transportation network will enable SF Express freight planes to operate at full capacity, hence improving transportation efficiency.

Automation is also being invested in the airport.

"We've spent nearly a year testing unmanned vehicles in designated areas on the apron, aiming to build an unmanned apron in the future," Le added.

The report added that the landlocked city of Ezhou is hundreds of kilometers away from any seaports but with the new airport, goods from Ezhou can reach anywhere in China overnight and overseas destinations in two days.

More international routes this year

This as the number of parcels handled by China's courier companies hit a record high of over 108 billion last year, and is expected to maintain stable growth in 2022, according to the State Post Bureau.

The new airport has opened two cargo routes to Shenzhen and Shanghai and is scheduled to add international routes connecting with Osaka in Japan and Frankfurt in Germany within this year.

The airport is expected to open around 10 international cargo routes and 50 domestic routes by 2025, with the cargo and mail throughput reaching 2.45 million tonnes.