Rail and air freight up, sea cargo down due to Covid-19
July 14, 2020 Category China News Round-up, Weekly
The number of China-Europe freight train trips posted notable growth in the first half. Freight rail trips between China and Europe rose 36% year-on-year to 5,122 in the first six months, according to the China State Railway Group, adding that the figure hit a record monthly high of 1,169 in June. Cargo train services have become an important logistics channel to ensure smooth trade as seaborne cargo transport has been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, the company said. A total of 461,000 standard-sized shipping containers of cargo were transported by rail in the first half, up 41% year-on-year.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said the country has seen a giant leap in international air cargo transportation capacity, thus helping maintain the smooth running of supply chains. Domestic and foreign-operated international cargo flights in China totaled an average of 2,390 per week in June, a 135.7% increase compared to before the coronavirus outbreak. They connected 105 destinations in 45 countries and regions across the globe, said Jin Junhao, Deputy Director of the CAAC’s Transportation Department. The CAAC approved 2,083 additional all-cargo charter flights in May and 1,521 in June, a sharp rise of 578.5% and 541.8%, respectively, from the same period last year, Jin said. The Administration also encouraged airlines to help remedy severe shortages in freight capacity by retrofitting idle passenger jets into cargo-ready aircraft. The country saw 4,625 and 2,539 all-cargo flights via renovated passenger jets, respectively, in the past two months.
Increased air cargo flights helped alleviate the losses due to reduced passenger traffic. China handled about 30.74 million individual air passenger trips last month, a year-on-year drop of about 42.4%. But the decline narrowed 10.2 percentage points from May and 42.1 percentage points from February, Jin Junhao said. Domestic routes saw 140 million passenger trips while international routes reported 8.52 million, equivalent to 48.6% and 23.5% of the volume for the same period last year, respectively, the China Daily reports.
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