In the customs supervision area of Urumqi Aviation Logistics Park, large trucks fully loaded with goods are lined up waiting to unload. After each batch of goods passes through security checks and is placed on pallets in the warehouse, they are transported to the cargo planes by unmanned shuttle vehicles. These goods will be transported by international cargo charter flights to Central Asia, Western Asia, Europe and other regions.
In the first half of this year, Xinjiang launched 8 new international cargo routes, with the international cargo volume reaching 47,400 tons, an increase of 7 times compared to the previous year. From the camel caravans of the ancient Silk Road to the current flights on the "air Silk Road", the prosperity of Xinjiang's air cargo hub is demonstrating the open vitality of the core area of the Silk Road Economic Belt.
36 international freight routes have been launched, covering 21 countries.
At 5:23 a.m. on July 27th, a fully-loaded cargo plane of Air France Cathay Cargo, carrying 57 tons of cross-border e-commerce goods, took off from Urumqi Tianshan International Airport and headed for Paris and Madrid in France. This marked the official launch of the regular international cargo flight route from Urumqi to Paris/Madrid, adding an important new stop to the layout of Urumqi's international cargo aviation hub.
The Urumqi - Tashkent - Tallinn air route is the first air passage connecting Xinjiang with the Baltic region; the Urumqi - Addis Ababa freight route successfully made its maiden flight, making Xinjiang an important hub for intercontinental air freight transportation; the Urumqi - Nish international freight route was successfully launched, adding a new channel for China-Europe trade... The Xinjiang Airport Group has opened 36 international freight routes, and has 38 international freight airlines as agents. The routes cover 21 countries in Asia and Europe. In the first half of this year, international freight charter flights operated 2,574 times, an increase of approximately 6 times compared to the same period last year.
Why are airlines纷纷 launching international routes to Xinjiang？
Located in the heart of the Eurasian continent, Xinjiang enjoys a geographical advantage of "five ports connecting eight countries and one route linking Europe and Asia". "For cargo flights from Guangzhou to Ethiopia, it takes nearly 11 hours. But starting from Urumqi, it only takes 8 hours. The round trip can save over 1 million yuan." Wu Guofei, the strategic development director of Ethiopian Airlines in China, introduced.
On April 17th, the northern terminal area of Urumqi Tian Shan International Airport was put into operation. "The aviation infrastructure in Urumqi has doubled. The 500,000-square-meter terminal building is larger than the combined total of the previous three old terminals. There are 177 parking positions, allowing nearly 1,000 flights to take off and land every day," said Yang Hongfeng, the deputy general manager of Xinjiang Airport Group. The group also invested 467 million yuan to renovate and upgrade the infrastructure, build new inspection areas for international cargo flights, and add intelligent equipment, significantly enhancing the cargo handling capacity and significantly reducing the customs clearance time for international cargo flights.
The "YueXin Express" of the Iron and Coal Combined Transport has a transportation efficiency that is over 15% higher than that of road transportation.
"The geographical advantages of Xinjiang result in lower transportation costs and shorter travel times for cross-border transportation. However, there are also obvious disadvantages, namely, the relatively long distance from the source of goods." After visiting Guangdong to investigate customer needs, Shi Jun, the chairman of Xinjiang Airport Group Tianyi International Logistics Co., Ltd., discovered that customers have a clear demand for "domestic railway + international air" combined transportation. The integration of railway and air transportation can significantly improve logistics efficiency and reduce enterprise costs.
On April 18th, the "railway trunk line + air express line" cross-border multimodal transportation channel - the "Guangdong-Xinjiang Express Line" railway-air intermodal train made its debut from Guangzhou International Port. After arriving in Urumqi, it completed seamless railway-air transfer and was loaded onto an air freight flight to fly to Europe. The entire journey was guaranteed to be completed within 7 days.
"Compared with road transportation, the 'Yuexin Express Line' can increase transportation efficiency by over 15%. Compared with the entire railway transportation route of the China-Europe Railway Express, the 'Yuexin Express Line' can save approximately two-thirds of the time, making it very suitable for high-requirement e-commerce goods and urgent orders." said Liu Yang, the deputy director of the 95306 Freight Logistics Service Center of the National Railway Urumqi Bureau.
"Intermodal transportation between railways and air requires high levels of information exchange. Currently, information such as quarantine and freight insurance has been able to be shared." Shi Jun explained. The Xinjiang Airport Group will work with the Xinjiang railway department to explore a new model of "one-ticket system" for intermodal transportation, achieving "one-time entrustment, one-time settlement, and one-ticket throughout the journey" for the goods.
Policy synergy, enhanced efficiency. To ensure the smooth launch of the new route, the customs of Urumqi Tianshan Airport actively reached out to the new airline, explaining business such as bonded aviation fuel and bonded maintenance, and answering inquiries; they tailored supervision plans and provided convenient measures like "7×24 hours" appointment-based customs clearance and immediate inspection upon arrival to increase the efficiency of customs clearance. The Xinjiang Exit-Entry Border Inspection General Station took service pre-positioning measures, setting the transit inspection point on the apron.
The trade volume with the countries participating in the "Belt and Road Initiative" increased by 17.9% year-on-year.
"As the construction of the national unified market progresses deeper, the volume of land transportation between Xinjiang and other regions has significantly increased, costs have decreased, and the timeliness and reliability have also improved compared to the past. Previously, it took 5 to 7 days to travel from Guangzhou to Urumqi. Now, it only takes 3 days. Then, from Xinjiang, international shipping can be taken, resulting in considerable cost savings." Liu Min, the general manager of Shenzhen Jiaohong Yida International Logistics Co., Ltd., said.
To meet the cross-border transportation demands of emerging markets, this company has added 4 fixed annual charter flight routes in Xinjiang this year. The monthly cargo volume exceeds 3,000 tons, mainly transporting cross-border e-commerce goods to Europe and other regions. The company has also set up an office in Xinjiang. "In the future, we will increase investment in the full-chain service capabilities," Liu Min said.
Seeing the vast potential of Xinjiang's foreign trade, Tan Deyi, who has been engaged in logistics business in Xinjiang for over 10 years, established Xinjiang Mols International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., specializing in foreign trade customs declaration services. "More and more international flights are operating in Xinjiang, and the transportation channels are becoming increasingly smooth. The customs are always ready for inspection, and the timeliness is more guaranteed." Tan Deyi said. His freight forwarding company handles over 100 tons of goods for customs declaration every day， and the goods mainly come from the eastern and southern regions of China. After the "Guangdong-Xinjiang Express Line" was launched， the procedures became simpler and the costs were lower.
There are currently 21 international freight forwarding companies operating in Urumqi, forming a new industrial cluster. Tianyi Logistics Company has launched preferential measures, offering discounts on storage fees, unpacking and packing fees, and cross-border e-commerce operation fees for freight forwarding companies that meet certain volume requirements.
Data from Urumqi Customs shows that in the first half of this year, Xinjiang's trade volume with countries participating in the "Belt and Road Initiative" reached 237.59 billion yuan, up by 17.9% year-on-year. "To promote the connectivity between China and the countries participating in the 'Belt and Road Initiative', we will continuously expand the international air freight network, continuously improve logistics efficiency, and reduce the cost of cross-border trade," said Yang Hongfeng. (Reporter He Yong, Li Yanan)
August 17th, 2025（xinhuanet）