At 16:00 on November 18, Yunnan Postal Branch launched the maiden flight on Kunming-Istanbul international air cargo route at Kunming Changshui International Airport. The dedicated route is operated by an Airbus A330 aircraft from Türkiye’s MNG Airlines, which was loaded with 56 tonnes of cargo that day, mainly consisting of clothing, shoes and hats, fresh flowers, etc. The launch of this dedicated route marks a new step Yunnan Postal Branch has made in expanding its share in the Eurasian air freight market, empowering the development of cross-border e-commerce and facilitating the initiative of Yunnan products going global. It also adds an efficient and convenient international logistics channel to the connectivity among the Belt and Road countries.

The Kunming-Istanbul international air cargo route, the seventh such route launched by Yunnan Postal Branch, will run at a regular frequency of four flights per week. This new route will help the plateau-featured agricultural products in Yunnan, such as fresh flowers and coffee, to enter the European market more quickly, and open a direct “air fast lane” to Europe for cross-border e-commerce. It will, therefore, vigorously boost Yunnan products going global and inject new momentum in building Yunnan into a new opening-up highland and integrating it into global supply chains. At the same time, the route will enable China-made daily necessities to enter into the Middle Eastern and North African markets more efficiently, making next-morning delivery between Kunming and Istanbul a reality and bringing to fruition the two-way efforts of “buying globally and selling globally”.

It is understood that since 2020, Yunnan Postal Branch has gradually increased international and domestic flights. It has successively launched multiple international air cargo routes from Kunming to destinations such as San Francisco, Bangkok, Jakarta, Sydney and Yangon, operating a total of over 700 flights. Currently, the international direct air cargo service of Yunnan Postal Branch accounts for 65 percent of the market share, effectively facilitating the local cross-border e-commerce enterprises in Yunnan generating import and export trade volume of over 1 billion yuan (about 0.14 billion US dollars).