With a 55m long Boeing 757200 all cargo aircraft landing smoothly on the West runway of Hubei Ezhou Huahu airport, China has completed the test flight of the new airport with all cargo aircraft for the first time. The mission lasted more than 4 hours and arrived at Ezhou Huahu airport from Wuhan Tianhe Airport. Ezhou Huahu airport has also become the first professional freight hub airport in Asia and the fourth in the world.
It is noteworthy that Ezhou Huahu airport is invested and constructed by express giant Shunfeng group, with a total investment of 32.063 billion yuan. It is estimated that by 2030, the airport will handle 3.3 million tons of cargo and mail and 1.5 million passengers. Some market analysts pointed out that with the operation of Ezhou Huahu airport, Shunfeng will establish a super aviation logistics platform to further raise the company’s barriers and consolidate its leading position in the industry. In addition, the airport will also enable China’s central and western regions to form a nationwide express logistics freight hub and reshape the air freight market structure.
Asia’s first cargo airport, with cargo and mail throughput of 2.45 million tons in 2025
Ezhou Huahu airport is the first professional freight hub airport in Asia and the fourth in the world. It is designed to meet the requirements of 1 million passengers and 2.45 million tons of cargo and mail throughput in 2025. The operation support level of the airport is 4E. In this phase, two long-distance parallel runways and taxiway systems are built in the East and West. The runways are 3600 meters long, 45 meters wide and 1900 meters apart. There are nearly 700000 square meters of freight transfer center, 15000 square meters of terminal building and 124 parking spaces. After completion, Hubei airlines will build a “passenger and cargo double hub” with Wuhan Tianhe Airport.
The cooperation between SF group and Hubei provincial government began in November 2014. That year, the Hubei provincial government and SF group decided to build an international logistics core hub project in Ezhou, which was jointly invested by both sides. The design of the airport focuses on cargo and pays equal attention to passengers and cargo. The total investment of the project is 32.063 billion yuan. It is estimated that by 2030, the cargo and mail throughput of the airport will be 3.3 million tons and the passenger throughput will be 1.5 million person times. In December 2017, SF Tyson, a subsidiary of S.F.Holding Co.Ltd(002352) company, invested 2.3 billion yuan with its own capital to participate in the establishment of Hubei International Logistics Airport Co., Ltd., with a shareholding ratio of 46%, which is fully responsible for the construction and operation of Ezhou Huahu airport.
Ezhou Huahu airport is expected to be put into trial operation in June this year. It will mainly meet the passenger demand during the day and mainly focus on cargo airlines at night. By then, the 1.5-hour flight circle of the airport can cover China’s five national urban agglomerations, including the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration and the Pearl River Delta urban agglomeration, radiating 90% of the country’s total economy and 80% of the population.
Wang Wei, President of SF group, once said that SF and Hubei are closely linked in the future development strategy and will further increase investment in Hubei. Taking the opportunity of jointly building Ezhou airport, SF will give full play to the network scale and technological innovation advantages of SF’s intelligent supply chain operators, promote the development of airport economy and better serve the real economy and small and medium-sized enterprises, Help Hubei build an important node of China’s great cycle and a strategic link of China’s international “double cycle”.
Feng Zhenglin, party secretary and director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said that Ezhou Huahu airport is the first professional freight hub in Asia and plays a leading and exemplary role in the construction of smart civil aviation and digital airport. The Civil Aviation Administration will fully support the construction and operation of Ezhou Huahu airport, and work with Hubei to build Huahu airport into an international freight hub with global influence.
cargo and passenger transport “grab resources” air cargo is concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen
It is understood that for a long time, China has few all cargo routes and few all cargo aircraft. The transportation of goods has relied on the belly compartment of passenger aircraft for a long time. This mode of transportation can not maximize the efficiency. On the one hand, it is because the transportation volume is limited, on the other hand, it is difficult to match the demand side. The delivery of passenger transport capacity often does not meet the transportation cost of freight, resulting in dislocation at both ends of supply and demand.
Li Sheng, President of SF airlines, once said on the issue of “building an airport”: “China’s airport is designed for passengers, without considering freight, especially the needs of the express industry. The actual operation of the whole express process on the ground is not very smooth, and we have a conflict with passenger transport resources, so we have to make such a consideration.”
Data show that before the outbreak, there were 235 transport airports in China by the end of 2019. The passenger throughput completed in 2019 was 1.35 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 6.9%. In the same period, the cargo and mail throughput reached 17.1 million tons, with a year-on-year increase of only 2.1%. It can be seen that the growth rate of China’s cargo is much lower than that of passenger transport, that is to say, China’s air cargo is in the initial stage of development.
Ren Hong, a first-class inspector of the infrastructure development department of the national development and Reform Commission, once introduced that among these airports in the development of air freight, their concentration is very high. For example, nearly 50% of the freight volume is concentrated in the three major airports of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. From the perspective of international freight, the international freight volume of the five major airports of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhengzhou is concentrated in 90% of the country. Therefore, from this point of view, although the growth of freight volume is sluggish, it is relatively concentrated.
It is understood that there are two types of freight airports undertaken by our country. One is comprehensive airports such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and the other is special-purpose airports with freight functions. More than 200 airports in China are basically comprehensive airports, and there are no airports with freight functions. Therefore, Ezhou Huahu airport will be put into use soon, which is an “ice breaking move” for China’s freight airport.
freight airport is conducive to improving the efficiency of logistics express industry and reducing costs
Timeliness is the lifeline of express delivery enterprises. Whether for SF or the three links and one up to Baishi rabbit, product stratification, value-added services and price increase are all based on timeliness guarantee. The operation of Ezhou Huahu airport will undoubtedly further speed up the transportation efficiency of Shunfeng.
According to the design that by 2025, the airport can meet the passenger flow of 1 million passengers and the cargo throughput of 2.45 million tons per year, which means that the average daily cargo volume of the airport can reach 6712 tons. According to the analysis of industry insiders, the maximum commercial carrying capacity of Boeing 737 series is generally about 16 tons. If calculated by 15 tons, it is equivalent to 448 cargo aircraft taking off and landing every day. According to 47 aircraft per hour, it takes 9.5 hours to complete. The maximum commercial load of Boeing 757200f can reach 25 tons. Based on an average of 23 tons per aircraft, only 292 cargo aircraft need to take off and land every day, which can be completed in more than 6 hours.
SF is the first private express enterprise in China to develop aviation business and establish airlines. Internationally, most of the leading global express companies also have a global or national freight hub to improve cargo turnover and aircraft utilization. In February this year, SF Airlines ushered in a new aircraft. It is reported that the aircraft is a B767300 wide body full cargo aircraft, which has officially joined the fleet and become the 69th self owned full cargo aircraft in the establishment.
Some people predict that SF’s fleet may exceed 70 this year, and the all cargo aircraft with long-distance navigation capacity will continue to grow.
SF air also said that SF air’s western China headquarters project has officially settled in Chengdu Shuangliu Airport, and plans to establish the fourth regional international aviation hub in the future, following Beijing, Hangzhou and Shenzhen, and plans to build a comprehensive bonded zone project connecting Ezhou airport inland, radiating the whole country and covering the Asia Pacific, Europe and the United States. It is understood that SF Airlines plans to increase the investment in all cargo aircraft and establish an international all cargo aircraft fleet with high load capacity combined with wide and narrow body and long and medium range.
Relevant statistics show that at present, SF Airlines has arranged four all cargo aircraft routes in Beijing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and Shanghai at Shuangliu Airport, and opened two international all cargo aircraft routes in Dhaka, Bangladesh and Kathmandu, Nepal. At the same time, SF Airlines achieved 158000 tons of cargo and mail throughput at Shuangliu Airport last year, an increase of 7.8%, accounting for 25.2% of the airport.
Zhao Xiaomin, an expert in express delivery industry, believes that the investment of Ezhou Huahu airport will open the gap between the timeliness of Shunfeng’s products and the industry for an average of more than 3 hours. This timeliness network is not only China’s timeliness network, but also the core advantage of serving global and supply chain products; It will also form a nationwide express logistics freight hub in Central China and reshape the air freight market structure.
For SF group, the significance of establishing an airport also lies in reducing costs. According to the annual performance forecast of SF group in 2021, the net profit of the company is 420 million yuan – 440 million yuan, a decrease of 40% – 43% over the same period of last year. The reasons for the decline in performance are as follows: 1) the company has increased the investment in network resources such as site, equipment and transportation capacity in order to expand market share, build long-term core competitiveness, cope with the high growth of parts volume and alleviate the bottleneck of production capacity; 2) During the epidemic period at the beginning of the year, in response to the call of the Spring Festival to celebrate the new year in place, the number of on-the-job employees and subsidies increased, resulting in an increase in labor costs; 3) The economic express delivery products with low price increase rapidly, which puts some pressure on the overall profit margin; 4) In 2020, the company will enjoy more preferential tax relief related to national anti epidemic, and these preferential policies will end in 2021. From this point of view, it is urgent for SF to further reduce its operating costs.
