Urban freight stations serve as both "transfer stations" for cargo distribution and "accelerators" for optimizing circulation efficiency. By providing standardized services, they reduce cross-regional logistics costs, enabling goods to flow more smoothly across the country.

Internationally, there are precedents for the layout of cargo terminals at some well-known cargo hub airports. For example, Memphis International Airport in the United States, as a leading global hub, centers around Memphis and its route network radiates across the globe. Through a well-designed layout of cargo terminals, it has achieved efficient circulation of cargo within the United States and even globally.

The cargo planes at Huahu Airport are loading and unloading goods.

In China, Pudong International Airport, as a significant cargo hub, achieves cross-provincial and cross-city logistics collaboration through a well-established regional cargo terminal layout. For instance, the Suzhou forward cargo terminal, which was just opened this year, has effectively "moved" the cargo handling window of Pudong International Airport to Suzhou. Goods departing from Suzhou can directly reach numerous cities both domestically and internationally after entering the cargo terminal.

The layout of the city cargo terminals at Huahu International Airport follows this logic as well. Take, for instance, the establishment of the Dongguan City Cargo Terminal at Huahu International Airport. This terminal integrates functions such as cargo consolidation, customs declaration, and land-air intermodal transportation. By fully leveraging the company's comprehensive advantages in **, trade, and logistics, as well as the supply chain platform capabilities of Huahu Airport, it can greatly enhance the radiation capacity of Huahu International Airport to the Pearl River Delta region, facilitating cross-border e-commerce exports from Guangdong to various parts of the world via Ezhou. It is predicted that this terminal will bring a cargo throughput of 60,000 tons to Huahu International Airport annually.

The establishment of urban freight stations is backed by solid data and demand.

Data shows that from January to July this year, Huahu International Airport has completed a total cargo and mail throughput of over 800,000 tons (including 660,800 tons of air cargo and mail throughput), marking a year-on-year increase of 73%. Such rapid development momentum has raised higher demands on the logistics network.

For Huahu International Airport, the establishment of a city cargo terminal is both an "efficiency improvement" and a "market necessity". On the one hand, the cargo terminal can achieve "rapid distribution" of goods, significantly shortening the logistics cycle; on the other hand, with the increasing regional exchanges, enterprises' demand for "end-to-end" logistics services is becoming increasingly urgent.

The Huahu Airport Hankou North City Freight Station was unveiled. Information picture

Take the Hankou North City Freight Station, which was put into use in May this year, as an example. Relying on the intelligent warehousing system and drone distribution network, high value-added goods such as ** seafood from New Zealand, Norway, and Alaska, including lobster, king crab, and other seafood, can be delivered to the core business district of Wuhan and the Baishazhou aquatic product market at an extremely fast speed, reducing distribution costs by 40%. Goods such as Norwegian salmon can be delivered directly to Wuhan within 12 hours, and then distributed to the terminal market through the next-day delivery network covering the entire country via the Huahu International Airport route network.

According to the relevant person in charge of SF Express, the city cargo terminal is like moving the airport cargo window to the gate of the commercial city. Merchants in Hankou North no longer need to send their goods to the Dongxihu District for transfer. After being packed in the market, the goods can directly take the "special bus" and arrive at Huahu International Airport within one hour.

The accelerated layout of urban freight stations not only speeds up the circulation of goods but also establishes a domestic closed loop of "production - hub - national market", becoming a key node for Hubei's industries to accelerate their integration into the unified national market.

The busy apron of Huahu Airport at midnight. Photographed by Chen Liang

On the production side, urban freight stations have become a crucial link connecting production areas with distribution networks, enabling production factors to more accurately align with market demands. Taking Huanggang Urban Freight Station as an example, its commissioning directly opened up a fast track for local agricultural products from "field to freight station to airport". Special agricultural products such as Yingshan tuckahoe and Luotian chestnuts can complete the entire pre-processing process from harvesting to entering the freight station, including precooling, packaging, and customs declaration, and then be shipped nationwide via the cold chain dedicated line at Huahu International Airport. This "production ** + urban freight station + aviation hub" model can reduce the loss rate of agricultural product circulation and promote the **coordination between the production side and market demand.

On the market side, urban freight stations have become "demand sensors" and "distribution accelerators" for the unified national market by integrating regional trade resources. The Guanggu freight station, which has been put into use, serves as a national **network-like barge-type air cargo terminal. Since its commissioning, based on market feedback, it has gradually shifted its service focus to the Guanggu manufacturing industry cluster, focusing on meeting the large-scale export needs of high value-added products such as electronic components and biomedicine. The cargo handling capacity has increased from an average of 15 tons per day to 140 tons, and the service efficiency has increased by 9 times.