China's airlines are stepping up efforts to launch fifth-freedom freight air routes in a bid to forge international air cargo hubs.
A fifth-freedom flight is one where an airline company from one country or region, when running an international service, gets permission to make a stopover in a third country and take on passengers and cargo.
"Launching a fifth-freedom flight air route will benefit logistics companies by allowing them to better utilize their cargo space so as to improve space utilization rates. Through its logistics network, cargo can be received from and delivered to various countries, thus forming an efficiently utilized logistics network," said Zhong Shan, an economist from the Institute of Air Transport of China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology.
On the early morning of Friday, Sichuan Airlines 3U9613, loaded with a batch of e-commerce packages, flew from the provincial capital city of Chengdu to Frankfurt in Germany. This marks Chengdu's first outbound all-cargo route to Northern Europe, and it is one of Sichuan Air Logistics' fifth-freedom freight air routes.
After making a stopover in Helsinki, the capital of Finland, the plane unloaded 18 tonnes of e-commerce packages. After getting reloaded with 7 tonnes of machinery equipment, the plane continued its flight heading for Frankfurt.
"The plane can freely load and unload cargo at three airports and flexibly allocate cargo destinations, enriching the supply of product combinations for different routes, which increases the overall cargo space availability and improves the actual utilization rate of the cargo space," said Zhao Zihu, manager of the freight air service sales department at Sichuan Air Logistics marketing management center.
In 2024, Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport in east China's Zhejiang Province, Jinan Yaoqiang International Airport in east China's Shandong Province, Haikou Meilan International Airport in south China's Hainan Province, and Ezhou Huahu Airport in central China's Hubei Province launched their fifth-freedom freight air routes. These routes connect intercontinental long-haul routes with Asian and domestic routes, extending the transport range and supporting industries with high time-sensitivity requirements, such as fresh produce and cross-border e-commerce imports and exports.
China intensifying efforts to launch fifth-freedom freight air routes to forge int'l air cargo hubs
A Brazilian national who was deported by the United States in January this year recounted the discriminatory and inhumane treatment he encountered during the repatriation in an interview with China Central Television (CCTV).
Jefferson Faustino was among the 88 deported Brazilians sent by a charter flight from the U.S. to Manaus, a city in northern Brazil, on Jan 24.
During dozens of hours of flight, they were handcuffed, shackled, and denied food and bathroom, and they almost lost their lives to an air conditioning fault, according to Faustino.
"They gave us water in very small bottles on the plane. And I couldn't drink it, because my hands were cuffed to the waist chain. So I had to bend down hard and squash the bottle to spray water into my mouth, because otherwise I wouldn't be able to reach the water at all. Even by doing so, I couldn't get water. When I squeeze the bottle, the water sprayed out and soaked me all over. In the 48 hours of repatriation, they distributed food only one time. It was a spoiled sandwich. The sandwich they gave turned purplish color. I was starving. What could I do? I had to eat," Faustino said.
"In the 48 hours of repatriation, they distributed food only one time. It was a spoiled sandwich. The sandwich they gave me was purple. I was starving. What could I do? I had to eat," he added.
Meanwhile, the American crew enjoyed fresh food and water, Faustino told CCTV.
"No, they had very good food. Every meal, they went over there to heat up box lunches and drink water. The cabin cabinets were full of lunch boxes, full of food, but they didn't give us that food," he said.
The Brazilian deportees protested the unfair treatment and asked for the food and water, but they were not given a response, because of the language barrier, Faustino recalled.
"Yes, we asked. We spoke loudly to them, but the crew didn't speak Portuguese or Spanish, only English. It's a humiliation to us the Brazilians, because we didn't have food and couldn't use the bathroom. The children were crying," he said.
After the plane arrived in Manaus, the air conditioning system broke down and the crew got off the plane, leaving the deportees suffocating in the enclosure.
"People couldn't breathe. The cabin was out of air. I managed to open an emergency exit door and shouted to the police: 'Help! Help! Help!' I yelled for help, asking them to come and save us, because I thought I was dying, I was dying," Faustino said.
The Brazilian government deemed this treatment "degrading" and "unacceptable", with the country's foreign ministry summoning the charge d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy to request an explanation over the issue on Jan 26.
"The U.S. government should be held accountable. Why didn't they train these people responsible for transporting deportees. Since the Trump administration came to power, it has created conflicts in American society and adopted policies that are completely against democracy and public opinion, disrupting relations between the U.S. and its economic and political partners," said Rinaldo Leal, a Brazilian lawyer.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed on his inauguration day an executive order that called for mass deportations of undocumented migrants. Since then, raids and deportations of undocumented migrants, especially those from Latin America, have continued to ramp up.
Brazilian deportee recounts inhumane treatment during flight from US
Brazilian deportee recounts inhumane treatment during flight from US
