Milan, July 6 (Xinhua) -- China-Europe aviation logistics industry, especially air cargo logistics, has witnessed rapid development in recent years, helping the Belt and Road initiative go deeper.
In 2018, trade volume by air freight between China and Europe amounted to 1.76 million tonnes, among which China's imports from Europe reached 898,400 tonnes, up 4.14 percent year on year, said Fan Erning, vice president of Eastern Air Logistics Co., Ltd. (EAL), at the Second Belt and Road Conference of Investment Matching for Chinese and Italian Enterprises held on July 5 in Milan, Italy.
In the first four months of 2019, the trade volume by air freight between China and Europe reached 545,580 tonnes, added Fan.
Fan Erning, vice president of Eastern Air Logistics Co., Ltd. (EAL), at the Second Belt and Road Conference of Investment Matching for Chinese and Italian Enterprises held on July 5 in Milan, Italy.
Fan also underlined that the direct aviation logistics between China and Italy has also shown a good development trend under the Belt and Road Initiative.
According to him, the imports and exports by air freight between China and Italy stayed at 166,500 tonnes in 2018, up 1.9 percent from those 2017. Among them, the volume of China's imports from Italy reached 101,100 tonnes, an increase of 7.43 percent year on year, indicating China's huge demand for Italian products and optimistic prospects for trade development between the two countries.
At present, the number of international passenger airlines between China and Europe has reached 174, and the number of cargo flight routes has reached 30, introduced Fan, adding that airlines departing from China have nearly 40 European destinations, of which nine are for cargo flights.
Fan also mentioned that, China Cargo Airlines Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of EAL, currently operates the all-freight routes of Pudong-Amsterdam-Pudong and Pudong-Frankfurt-Pudong.
Eastern Air Logistics Co., Ltd., with its headquarter in Shanghai, is a modern integrated logistics service enterprise subordinate to China Eastern Air Holding Company (CEAH). It is dedicated to providing customers around the world with safe, efficient, accurate, fast and overall well-integrated logistics service solutions.
EAL has subsidiaries such as China Cargo Airlines Ltd., EAL Express and EAL Transportation, as well as other stations and branch offices at home and abroad, with over 6,700 employees.
Organized jointly by China Economic Information Service (CEIS) of Xinhua News Agency and Class Editori, a leading media group in Italy, the Second Belt and Road Conference of Investment Matching for Chinese and Italian Enterprises attracted about 450 attendees from Italy and China. At the conference, they conducted in-depth exchange of views over topics such as how to better participate in the Belt and Road construction, seek business investment opportunities, and achieve interconnection. (Contributed by Hu Pingchao, Chen Zhanjie, Shen Zhonghao, Edited by Li Wenxin, liwenxin@xinhua.org)
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