At 4:35 a.m .on June 6, a full-cargo Boeing 747 from Miami landed at the airport, marking the official launch of the airport’s first air cargo route with the fifth freedom right, thus making Ezhou the city with fifth freedom right.
The fifth freedom right, also known as the third-country transportation right, refers to the right of a country’s airline to stop over and carry passengers and cargo in the third country while operating an international route. Common international routes usually operate between two countries. Once the fifth air right is opened up, it means that airlines can carry cargo in a third country, and realize “multi-point transfer” of cargo, thus reducing the links of land transit and distribution, and lowering the cost of flight transportation.
Operated by China Eastern Airline Cold Chain Logistics Co., Ltd., the flight route this time is “Ezhou - Incheon - Miami”, with Boeing 747-400 all-cargo aircraft type serving for one-way distance 13583 km, making it the longest intercontinental all-cargo flight route operated by China Eastern Airline Cold Chain Logistics. On that day, this all-cargo plane was loaded with nearly 50 tons of salmon imported from Chile and assembled and distributed in Ezhou, and then it would take off from Huahu International Airport with 110 tons of cargo to Incheon, South Korea and Miami, USA.
The route is scheduled to carry out 135 flights throughout the year, and the annual import and export cargo volume is expected to reach 20,000 tons. The outbound cargo is mainly loaded with cross-border e-commerce goods, electronic products, and will include fresh products in the future; the inbound cargo is mainly loaded with fresh, chilled and seasonal fruits and vegetables purchased overseas by China Eastern Airline Cold Chain Logistics, including American lobsters, Chilean salmons, and cherries. Huahu Airport will become one of the main ports of entry for fresh goods imported by China Eastern Airline Cold Chain Logistics.
At present, Ezhou is joining hands with China Eastern Airline Cold Chain Logistics Co., Ltd. to build Ezhou Fresh Food Port and Medicine Port. According to the path of “one route, one industry, and one ecosystem”, efforts are made to focus on three directions of cold chain logistics, fresh food trade and port value-added services, through self-built or cooperative ways, it will build a whole industry chain of imported fresh products around Huahu Airport with the functions of cold chain distribution and transportation, cold chain warehousing, temporary storage of fresh products, fine processing of fresh products, and digital trading platform for the whole industry chain. Efforts are made to realize the high-efficient transportation of global fresh products featuring “ordering in batches and distributing in batches; arriving within three days from all over the world”; Relying on the cargo route of Huahu Airport, efforts are made to build Ezhou Medicine Port, in an aim to accelerate the flow of import and export medicine, and further meet the market demand.
Next, Ezhou will use the landing of the fifth freedom right as an opportunity to accelerate the construction of a route network “covering the whole country and radiating the world”, and strive to build Huahu International Free Trade Airport, in an aim to promote the high-quality development of Hubei’s export-oriented economy by opening up to the outside world at a higher level.