At 9 am on November 15, a B747 all-cargo plane operated by Cargolux Airlines International arrived at Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport in Zhengzhou city of Central China's Henan province from Milan of Italy. A 43-ton non-removable cargo with a volume of some 31 cubic meters was unloaded carefully.
A 43-ton non-removable cargo with a volume of some 31 cubic meters was unloaded carefully. [Photo by Dong Ping/Henan Daily]
"Thank Cargolux for providing us a timely support. The Air Silk Road linking Zhengzhou with Luxembourg is really an important air freight line securing supplies!" Jiang Zhiqiang, deputy general manager of Zouxian Power Plant of Huadian Power International Co Ltd in East China's Shandong province, immediately shared this exciting news with his partners in Shandong. "The cargo has been received, so our technical upgrading project can proceed as scheduled now."
Zouxian Power Plant, the largest thermal power plant of China Huadian Co Ltd and a major power generation source for Central and East China, has worked out a plan to upgrade its single-machine capacity of China's largest thermal generator set.
An HP-IP rotor (workblank), the oversized cargo transported by Cargolux to Zhengzhou this time, is a core component.
"November 21 was our original plan, but we advanced the time of shipment due to the limited time of our technical upgrading project." Jiang Zhiqiang told Henan Daily that only Cargolux can meet their requirements of time, route, aircraft type and expertise. "Most importantly, the Milan-Zhengzhou air freight route undertaken by Cargolux has regular flights every week, which is really important for us!"
On hearing the news, Henan Civil Aviation Development & Investment Co Ltd (HNCA) immediately asked HNCA Logistics Co Ltd to formulate a scheme with Cargolux. General manager of HNCA Logistics Co Ltd Guo Chun said, "We told Cargolux what we wanted and they quickly finished the loading so as to ensure the timely shipment."
It is difficult to transport a 43-ton cargo by air since the cargo has to be placed at the center of the plane, so for each flight only one can be transported. At present, only Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport in China has the practical experience of dealing with a B747 cargo plane carrying a piece of cargo weighing more than 40 tons.
According to Zhang Mingchao, Party secretary and president of HNCA, assisting the centrally-administered state-owned enterprise with the task of ensuring power supply is to promote China's "dual circulation" development pattern through the Zhengzhou-Luxembourg Air Silk Road and actively turn Henan's advantage in geographical location into the strength of a hub economy with the strategy of refreshing traditional advantages implemented by the CPC Henan Provincial Committee and the People's Government of Henan Province.
Statistically, Cargolux has extended its air freight routes by linking Zhengzhou with 14 cities worldwide, such as Luxembourg, London, Budapest, Chicago, Atlanta, Milan, etc. Such an extended air freight network has greatly promoted Zhengzhou's vows to build an aviation hub. In the first 10 months of 2021, Cargolux totally made 591 trips to Zhengzhou with a cargo throughput of about 107.5 thousand tons, up 10.8 percent on a year-on-year basis. (Chinese source: Henan Daily Reporter: Dong Ping and Song Min Translator: Zhao Hanqing Poster: Wang Junyi Proofreader: Zhang Junping)
