Attractive Central Asia

The Uzbek airline My Freighter has launched two new connections to China. Ethiopian Cargo, in turn, now also serves a new Chinese destination, which is, geographically speaking, simultaneously a part of Central Asia.

Photo: Ethiopian Cargo / My Freighter

The Uzbek cargo airline My Freighter is continuing its network expansion with new links to and from China. After its successful maiden flight to Hefei Xinqiao airport (HFE) at the end of May it also launched a new connection between the Hangzhou Xiaoshan gateway (HGH) and its hub in Tashkent (TAS) at the beginning of July.

The inaugural flight to Hangzhou transported more than 50 t of cargo – including consumer goods, textiles and high-value goods – from the Uzbek capital to eastern China. My Freighter called the option a “direct logistics bridge” between the regions. The new route is part of a strategy of offering reliable freight solutions between Central Asia and China.

“By adding Hangzhou as a new destination we support regional trade and industry and offer our partners faster and more efficient transport solutions,” the company stated.

The route from Hefei to Tashkent, which opened just over a month earlier, helps to improve freight volumes between China and Central Asia and, according to My Freighter, is a further step towards planned regular traffic.

The airline has announced that it intends to further expand its route network in China. A growing number of Chinese airports will be connected regularly to Tashkent in the future, in order to meet increasing customer demand.

Ethiopian Airlines has also reported on the expansion of its traffic to and from China. At the end of June Ethiopian Cargo added the hub in the northwestern Chinese metropolis of Urumqi (URC) to its cargo network. The connection complements the airline’s existing Asian portfolio, which already includes Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Zhengzhou and Shanghai.

Urumqi will initially be served twice a week with Boeing B777Fs. According to Ethiopian Cargo the connection has been designed to support the “growing trade and logistics flows between China and Africa.”

Imports and transit operations

The expansion of such east–west axes underlines the strategic role that Central Asia now plays as a logistics interface. Urumqi is a hub for transport between Chinese regions, the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

With investments in direct cargo links, consolidated gateways and digital hand­ling, providers such as Ethiopian Cargo and My Freighter are strengthening efficiency on these routes. Central Asia is thus positioning itself as a strong economic region and as a hub in a growing multilateral airfreight network.