Xinhua News Agency, Wuhan, October 9th – Title: China’s First Professional Cargo Hub Airport Accelerates Global Connectivity
Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Zichen
“The electricity load has reached 165.12 megawatts.” Around 2:00 AM on October 9th, inside the dispatch center of Ezhou Power Supply Company, State Grid Hubei Electric Power Company Limited, the curve representing the electricity load of Ezhou Huahu International Airport surged to its peak on the large screen. The duty personnel were fully focused, monitoring every fluctuation of the power grid.
At the same time, dozens of kilometers away at Huahu Airport, the apron was brightly lit. As soon as an aircraft landed, a stream of tow tractors, refueling trucks, and transfer vehicles followed in an orderly manner, working intensively to unload cargo and refuel. Inside the airport’s “I”-shaped transfer center, over 20,000 sorting equipment units operated automatically, working at full capacity to sort goods.
A relevant person in charge of the SF Airlines Ezhou base explained that demand for fresh produce surges around holidays, leading to a significant increase in cargo volume. Every day from 1:00 AM to 5:00 AM, flowers, fruits, and seafood from around the world gather here, are transshipped and sorted, and then transported to various destinations. Recently, the airport handled a peak of over 100 cargo flights in a single day, with daily cargo and mail throughput exceeding 5,000 tons.
As China’s first professional cargo hub airport, Huahu Airport has been continuously expanding its network of cargo routes since it commenced operations in July 2022. Yu Yulong, Assistant General Manager of Hubei International Logistics Airport Co., Ltd., stated that since the beginning of this year, Huahu Airport has opened 18 new international cargo routes, including to Paris, France, and Bangalore, India, as well as 4 domestic cargo routes, including one to Lhasa, Tibet. Currently, the airport operates 109 cargo routes, ranking first in the country.
Relying on an increasingly comprehensive route network and strong transfer capabilities, Huahu Airport’s cargo and mail throughput has increased year by year. Data shows that in 2022, Huahu Airport’s cargo and mail throughput was less than 10,000 tons; it increased to 258,000 tons in 2023 and reached 1.025 million tons in 2024. In the first three quarters of 2025 alone, Huahu Airport’s cargo and mail throughput exceeded 1.08 million tons.
With the continuous improvement of the cargo hub’s capacity, Ezhou City is actively promoting the coordinated development of “industrial clusters + logistics hubs,” using the airport to drive logistics and using logistics to aggregate industry.
Walking into the live broadcast center of the China (Ezhou) Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park, foreign host Abu is conducting a “live sales” session on an overseas e-commerce live streaming platform. The reporter noted that Abu, besides being fluent in English, also recommends cost-effective products based on the audience’s budget and needs, which makes him popular.
Bi Wei, a relevant person in charge of the park, said that the park has introduced a series of policies to support enterprises in innovating through models like “bonded warehouse + live streaming” and “experience store + live streaming,” vigorously developing the cross-border e-commerce industry. Since its official operation on April 30th this year, nearly 300 companies have registered and signed contracts with the park.
Meanwhile, following domestic and international market demand, Huahu Airport is actively deploying off-site city cargo stations to打通 the “last mile” of commercial logistics. Currently, 7 off-site cargo stations have been established in places like Dongguan, Wuxi, and Guiyang, enabling direct access for Chinese manufactured goods to overseas markets.
Zhang Quan, Member of the Ezhou Municipal Standing Committee and Executive Vice Mayor, stated that in the future, Ezhou will focus on strengthening the international mega-hub, optimizing the major open platform, and solidifying the airport-oriented industry. The city will further create a first-class international business environment, continuously expand Huahu Airport’s overseas “circle of friends,” and make Huahu Airport a “key gateway” for China’s smooth connection to the world.
