Chinese air cargo carriers rise together; who will dominate the outcome?

21st Century Business Herald Reporter Zhang Xu Beijing Report

When we talk about China’s air cargo, our attention often first turns to Pudong Airport—this super hub that has consistently ranked among the global top three for many years. But in the Civil Aviation Administration’s blueprint for the “3+7+N” international aviation hub system, different airports are playing distinctly different roles: from Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the Pearl River Delta, to Ezhou and Zhengzhou in Central China, China’s air cargo development is actually showing clear differentiation in its development paths.

More specifically, the “3+7+N” plan clearly sets out different tiers of China’s aviation hubs: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou as the three major international aviation hubs; Shenzhen, Chengdu, Chongqing, and others as the seven regional hubs; and Ezhou, among others, as specialized cargo hubs. Under this framework, Pudong is the “international gateway,” Guangzhou and Shenzhen are the “manufacturing industry protectors,” and Ezhou and Zhengzhou are the “inland opening pioneers.”

How do these different hubs each fulfill their roles? And how will their competition and cooperation affect economic development in their regions? In the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan,” as the “3+7+N” plan is gradually taking shape, it’s necessary to re-examine the development trajectory and future direction of air cargo in different parts of China.

Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport. Photo: Zhang Xu

Competing Heroes Rise

According to Civil Aviation Administration data, in 2025, Guangdong has maintained the No. 1 position nationwide for cargo and mail throughput—459.2 million tons—accounting for more than one-fifth of the national total. Behind this achievement are the “dual-core” drivers of Guangzhou and Shenzhen airports.

Among them, Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, as a core hub, handled 243.99 million tons of cargo and mail, ranking second among all airports nationwide. According to data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Guangzhou Baiyun Airport’s throughput has become the 10th largest globally. Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport also broke through the 200-million-ton mark for the first time, reaching 20.5 million tons and ranking third nationwide.

The combined cargo volume of the two major hub airports is close to 45 million tons. The pursuit of timeliness by industries such as cross-border e-commerce and high-end electronics manufacturing is one of the key driving forces.

Shanghai, meanwhile, represents the extreme of single-core hub development. In 2025, Shanghai Pudong International Airport’s cargo and mail throughput first surpassed 40 million tons. It not only remains firmly at the top of the domestic airport rankings, but has long since overtaken Memphis Airport in the United States—which previously held the world’s No. 1 position.

At present, Pudong Airport’s throughput is only second to Hong Kong International Airport in the world, ranking No. 2 globally. Combined with Hongqiao Airport’s 4.45 million tons, Shanghai’s total air freight volume for the two airports exceeds 45 million tons. More than 80% of Pudong Airport’s cargo volume comes from international routes, making it a highly outward-facing node in the global supply chain.

The rise of Central China has added a standout chapter to the 2025 air cargo map. In 2025, Hubei Province achieved cargo and mail throughput of 13.49 million tons, up 26.8% year on year, with its growth rate ranking among the top among major provinces nationwide.

The core engine driving this growth is Ezhou Huahu Airport, located 100 kilometers from Wuhan. This is the world’s fourth and Asia’s first dedicated cargo airport. In 2025, Ezhou Huahu Airport completed 11.457 million tons of cargo and mail throughput, a year-on-year surge of 32.4%, ranking fifth nationwide among all airports. At the same time, it contributed most of the incremental growth in Hubei Province. By the end of 2025, the cargo routes cumulatively opened by Huahu Airport reached 111, including 50 international routes; the density of its route network ranked No. 1 nationwide.

Unlike most airports that are passenger-oriented, dedicated cargo airports tilt all resources toward cargo. In the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of International Aviation Hubs” released by the Civil Aviation Administration in August 2024 (hereinafter referred to as the “Guiding Opinions”), it is clearly stated that high-quality operation of specialized cargo hubs such as Ezhou should be promoted, and the construction of the Zhengzhou International Logistics Center should be accelerated. When interpreting the “Guiding Opinions,” the Civil Aviation Development Planning Department further pointed out that air cargo hubs should break the old norm of “heavy passengers and light cargo,” and leverage the synergistic effect of effective passenger-and-freight supply within the hub system. Through specialized and large-scale development, it should improve the efficiency of air cargo transshipment, supporting a leap in the level of air cargo hub capacity.

Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport also crossed the one-hundred-million-ton threshold for the first time in 2025, reaching 10.334 million tons, up 25.24% year on year. Among this, its international cargo volume exceeded 6.6 million tons, setting a historical record. Zhengzhou Airport has gathered 36 all-cargo airlines and opened 70 freighter routes, extending to 28 of the top 50 cargo airports worldwide.

In the view of people in the industry, the rapid growth of Ezhou and Zhengzhou jointly outlines the enormous potential of Central China’s air cargo sector. With unique geographic advantages and specialized operations, they shoulder regional—and even global—freight distribution and aggregation functions.

Guo Jia, a civil aviation expert and professor at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies’ Guangwai Nanguo Business School, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter Zhang Xu: in the “3+7+N” air cargo system, specialized cargo airports are singled out as key targets, mainly due to strategic considerations for the stability of industrial chains and supply chains. The country is promoting “strengthening national production and national transportation,” but cargo operations’ workflow and time requirements differ significantly from passenger operations. Dedicated airports can better ensure efficient operations.

“Take Ezhou Airport (SF Express), Jiaxing Airport (YTO), and Zhengzhou Airport (China Post) as representatives: specialized cargo hubs can avoid disruption to passenger flight operations caused by freight. In passenger airports, once cargo volumes become excessive, it can affect passengers’ travel experience and operational safety. Whereas in dedicated airports, from channels to facilities, everything is designed for cargo, resulting in higher system efficiency.” Guo Jia said.

The “Chemical Reaction” of Hub Economy

The growth in cargo volume of freight aviation hubs is closely linked to the level of regional economic development.

Zeng Gang, director of the Urban Development Research Institute at East China Normal University, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter Zhang Xu that, as one of the world-class aviation hubs, Shanghai Pudong International Airport’s contribution to driving high-end industry clustering and enhancing the city’s standing within the global urban network is very evident.

“Centered on Shanghai, the large aircraft industry cluster, with leading companies in integrated circuits and biopharmaceuticals flocking to Shanghai, the rise of Shanghai as an international convention and exhibition city, and the results of building Shanghai as an international economic, financial, trade, shipping, and innovation center—all are closely related to Pudong Airport,” Zeng Gang said.

Guo Jia said that in 2025, Pudong Airport’s cargo volume exceeded 40 million tons, up 8.3% year on year. The main driver behind this growth was an increase in capacity deployment. As China is a global manufacturing hub, electronic components, medical devices, precision instruments, and cross-border e-commerce goods are highly dependent on air transportation. Large quantities of goods in the Yangtze River Delta are concentrated and shipped out via Pudong, which is the main source of Pudong Airport’s continuously growing cargo volume.

At the same time, he pointed out that a single hub has resource bottlenecks. “Cargo in the Greater Bay Area is dispersed across Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou, and the combined cargo volume far exceeds Pudong. This shows that the single hub in the Yangtze River Delta is close to its capacity limit. Also, since Pudong still needs to balance the function of serving as an international passenger aviation hub, there is an urgent need for specialized cargo airports such as Jiaxing to share the pressure and form a development pattern of coordinated passenger-and-freight operations supported by multiple points.”

On December 26, 2025, domestic China’s second dedicated cargo airport—Jiaxing Nanhu Airport—began operations, becoming an important force for freight in the Yangtze River Delta.

Different from the development pattern of the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta has taken another path. Relying on Guangdong’s strong advanced manufacturing and cross-border e-commerce industry clusters, Guangdong has, with one province, built two 20-million-ton-class cargo hubs—Guangzhou Baiyun Airport and Shenzhen Bao’an Airport.

Han Yonghui, executive director of the Guangdong International Strategy Research Institute at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter Zhang Xu: “In 2025, Guangdong’s airports across the province handled 45.9 million tons of cargo and mail. Among them, Shenzhen Airport’s cross-border e-commerce business volume exceeded 3 million tons, and logistics giants such as UPS and SF Express all increased capacity deployment here.”

In addition, multi-airport coordinated development and differentiated positioning form a cluster effect. Guangzhou Baiyun Airport focuses on radiation across a global route network; Shenzhen Airport delves deeply into cargo for the technology industry and cross-border e-commerce; and airports such as Zhuhai and Jieyang strengthen the functions of regional nodes. By 2025, Guangdong became the only province in China with four airports that reached the “ten-million passenger” level in annual passenger throughput, building a three-dimensional air cargo network with coverage across the province and functional complementarities.

With thriving growth in cargo demand, 2025 became a year of major airport infrastructure upgrades for Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Han Yonghui said that this year, Shenzhen Airport opened three new international cargo routes and added 16 international cargo route points. At the same time, the operation of Baiyun Airport’s T3 terminal building and the fifth runway made it the world’s largest single-airport. Moreover, transit products such as “via Shenzhen” and “via Zhuhai-Hong Kong” optimized the logistics ecosystem, injecting sustained momentum into air cargo.

Currently, the construction of Guangzhou’s new airport project has also begun. The new airport’s total investment is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan RMB. In the near term, the upcoming plan can meet annual passenger throughput of 30 million passenger trips and cargo/mail throughput of 0.5 million tons. In the long term, it can meet annual passenger throughput of 60 million to 80 million passenger trips and cargo/mail throughput of 2.2 million tons.

A civil aviation industry insider, Li Xiaojin, told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter Zhang Xu that international aviation hubs provide strong momentum for building innovation centers. A convenient international air network is conducive to attracting top global talent and accelerating the aggregation and distribution of innovation resources. Airport clusters provide the Greater Bay Area with global air logistics channels for high-tech industries such as electronics, biomedicine, and new energy vehicles—offering “same-day delivery” and even “within hours” options—directly enhancing supply chain transportation efficiency and economic efficiency.

The air cargo advantages of the Pearl River Delta come from strong manufacturing clusters and multi-airport coordination, while the industries and aviation hub functions in Central China reflect a pattern of two-way empowerment. Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport’s rise began with Foxconn’s settlement in 2010. To meet Apple’s stringent time-efficiency requirements for its global supply chain, Henan built the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Comprehensive Experimental Zone.

Foxconn is not only a manufacturing plant, but also a “freight source engine” for air cargo. The Zhengzhou Xinzheng Bonded Supervision Area has ranked among the top nationwide for import and export values for years. In 2025, Foxconn Zhengzhou Technology Park produced 88.23 million iPhones for the full year, up 12.9% year on year. It has cumulatively produced more than 1.2 billion smart phones.

But Zhengzhou has not stopped there. Looking toward the “15th Five-Year Plan,” the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone proposed to “build a stronger hub to help expand industries,” and systematically organized its industrial layout into a “3+3+1” system: focusing on three high-growth industries—artificial intelligence, new energy vehicles, and intelligent equipment; cultivating three high-potential industries—biomedicine, robotics, and aerospace; and vigorously developing modern commercial logistics, a foundational advantageous industry.

Zeng Gang said that the development of Zhengzhou’s aviation hub has driven rapid growth in Henan’s outward-oriented economy, transforming Zhengzhou from a traditional inland city into a high-level opening-up hub. The airport zone has become an important engine of Henan’s economic growth, attracting large amounts of foreign investment and high-end talent, and promoting industrial transformation and upgrading.

“Through bringing in leading companies like Foxconn, Zhengzhou has created a virtuous cycle of ‘pulling industries through freight and promoting freight through industries.’ Large-scale production and manufacturing generate stable demand for air cargo, and efficient air logistics attracts more high-end manufacturing to settle in. Cooperation with Luxembourg Cargo Airline has become a model: through the ‘dual hub’ mode, Europe’s air network is effectively connected with China’s market, forming an air economic corridor linking Europe and Asia. Zhengzhou also effectively aligns air transportation with the Zhengzhou–Europe railway (Zhengzhou line for China–Europe freight trains), creating a distinctive advantage of ‘air-rail intermodal transport,’” Zeng Gang said.

During this year’s Two Sessions (National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference), Tan Haitao, deputy secretary-general of the Henan provincial government and director of the Zhengzhou Airport Economic Zone Management Committee, gave an example: on average, Foxconn turns out two smartphones per second, and several flights every day provide service to its global supply chain. This vividly illustrates the positive interaction between hubs and industries. “Turning hub advantages into industrial advantages is the core logic of the zone’s development,” Tan said.