File photo shows a passenger plane at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in south China's Guangdong Province. (Xinhua/Deng Hua)
GUANGZHOU, April 13 (Xinhua) -- The southern Chinese metropolis of Guangzhou has launched a new all-cargo air route to France's Paris, said Guangdong Airport Authority's logistics company on Thursday.
On Tuesday, an all-cargo freighter from France's CMA CGM Air Cargo departed from Paris, en route to Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, marking the start of the intercontinental all-cargo route launched by the airport this year.
The maiden flight took off from Paris at 10 p.m. on Tuesday local time and landed at Baiyun airport at 2 a.m. on Thursday Beijing time. It left the airport at 5 a.m. on the same day, fully loaded with 58 tonnes of cargo bound for Paris.
The cargo transported through the route will mainly include e-commerce goods, electronics and fresh cold-chain goods. The route is scheduled to operate three flights per week and is expected to bring more than 20,000 tonnes of international cargo throughput growth to the Baiyun airport annually, the company said.
The airline network of the airport covers more than 230 shipping points around the world. In 2022, the cargo and mail handling capacity of the airport exceeded 1.88 million tonnes, ranking second among all the Chinese airports for three consecutive years since 2020.
Currently, Baiyun airport is undergoing expansion, which is estimated to increase its total cargo terminal area to more than 1 million square meters with a terminal cargo handling capacity of 6 million tonnes in 2025. ■
