On 26th February, with the efforts on accelerating the development of the international free trade aviation hub, Ezhou Huahu Airport’s daily average number of inbound and outbound freight flights exceeded 90, ranking stably among the top four nationwide.
Since the opening of its first international route on 1st April, 2023, Huahu Airport has 70 routes opened, including 55 cargo routes, with a number of 1,022 inbound and outbound flights and a total of 42,040.76 tons of cargo in 2023. It has handled a total cargo and mail throughput of 245,300 tons (including 46,300 tons international) and a passenger throughput of 420,500. From 1st January to 16th February this year, it has handled a cargo and mail throughput of 94,000 tons (including 12,000 tons international). Currently, the hourly landing capacity of Huahu Airport is 31 flights per hour, and the takeoff capacity is 33 flights per hour during the period of 0 to 6 o’clock Beijing time, which can fully meet the needs of cargo route development.
From 24th to 25th January, Huahu Airport’s comprehensive designated supervision area smoothly passed the on-site assessment and acceptance by the experts of the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, and obtained the approval and was put into operation on 5th February. Huahu Airport now has the qualifications for the importation of three categories of special commodities: fruits, fresh aquatic products, and aquatic animals. On 6th February, the first batch of imported aquatic products, 6.7 tons of Indian crabs, arrived at Huahu Airport on a SpiceJet cargo flight from Kolkata, India. Recently, Huahu Airport was approved as a national smart port pilot.
This year, Ezhou city will continue to apply for the construction of Ezhou Airport Bonded Logistics Center (Type B) and strive to establish Ezhou Airport Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone on this basis to further promote the inclusion of Ezhou Airport Economic Zones in the expansion scope of China (Hubei) Pilot Free Trade Zone. Additionally, the city will also actively apply for the National Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone and National Airport Economic Demonstration Zone.
On 31st January, Reward Measures of Huahu Airport to Encourage International Air Cargo Flights officially came into effect, of which the reward is based on the annual international cargo volume of enterprises at Huahu Airport and the maximum annual reward for a single enterprise is 20 million yuan. According to different stages of cargo volume, there are five categories ranging from 0.3 yuan/kg to 2 yuan/kg. The higher the cargo volume, the higher the reward standard, which aims to encourage enterprises to launch cargo at the airport.
Relying on Huahu Airport, Ezhou is accelerating the development of three key industries: aviation transportation, aerospace manufacturing, and modern services. Up to now, 33 freight forwarding companies have carried out business at Huahu Airport. In 2023, 75 new contracts worth more than 100 million yuan were signed in the Airport Economic Zone, with a total investment of 39.91 billion yuan. In 2024, 8 projects worth more than 100 million yuan have been signed in the Airport Economic Zone, with a total investment of 3.9 billion yuan.