China boosts global reach with over 70 new int'l air freight routes in H1

China's air freight sector took off in the first half (H1) of this year, with the country launching 90 new routes, including over 70 international connections to meet surging demand, the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said on Sunday.

China launched 16 new domestic air freight routes and 74 international ones, including 39 linking countries and regions in Asia, 17 to Europe, 15 to North America, two to Africa and one to Oceania, according to H1 data.

"Due to geopolitical conflicts, many consignors have switched from ocean freight to air freight, which has driven up a strong demand for air freight. In general, with the same cargo volume, one to two percentage points of reduction in maritime transport will bring around 20-percent growth for air logistics," said Cui Zhongfu, deputy head of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

During the same period, China's civil air transport turnover was 70.3 billion tonne-kilometers, up 32.2 percent year on year, with domestic routes handling 47.04 billion tonne-kilometers, up 16 percent, and international routes completing 23.26 billion tonne-kilometers, up 84.1 percent year on year.

The country saw 26,700 scheduled cargo flights in H1, a year-on-year increase of 6 percent. It maintained regular cargo flights to 48 overseas air destinations in 42 countries, with Chinese airlines carrying out 8,784 such flights and foreign airlines completing 17,900 such flights.

"A sentiment that is prevalent in the air freight market is that the slow season is not slow at all. Both Chinese and foreign airlines are upbeat about the Chinese market. So currently we are seeing a sound growth momentum regarding scheduled cargo flights, but such a momentum is more obvious in terms of unscheduled cargo flights," said Shang Kejia, an official with the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Amid rising demands from deliveries of products in cross-border e-commerce as well as electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products, China implemented 3,300 international cargo charter flights in the first half of the year, up 9 percent year on year, and up 8.5 times from the number during the same period in 2019.

China boosts global reach with over 70 new int'l air freight routes in H1

China boosts global reach with over 70 new int'l air freight routes in H1

The European Central Bank (ECB) announced on Thursday that it would slash key interest rates by 25 basis points in a bid to wind down the restrictive monetary policy.

Effective from March 12, the interest rates on the deposit facility, the main refinancing operations and the marginal lending facility will be decreased to 2.50 percent, 2.65 percent and 2.90 percent respectively, said the central bank in a statement.

The disinflation process is well on track, with headline inflation averaging 2.3 percent in 2025, 1.9 percent in 2026 and 2.0 percent in 2027, the ECB said.

The decision to keep on cutting rates came at a time when the economy in the eurozone is facing increasing uncertainties.

In its latest edition of the staff projections on Thursday, the ECB lowered its forecast for economic growth in the eurozone to 0.9 percent for 2025, 1.2 percent for 2026 and 1.3 percent for 2027.

This marks a downward revision from the ECB's forecast in December last year, which had projected 1.1 percent growth in 2025 and 1.4 percent in 2026, while the 2027 outlook remains unchanged.

The ECB attributed the weaker growth outlook for 2025 and 2026 to declining exports and sluggish investment, citing high trade policy uncertainty and broader economic instability as key factors.

ECB cuts interest rates by 25 basis points