HAIKOU /China/, May 13. /TASS/. A cargo flight has connected the Chinese city of Haikou (southern Hainan Province) with the Austrian capital Vienna and the English city of Bournemouth, Hainan Daily reported.

The flight is operated by European Cargo airline using Airbus A340-600 airplanes. This route delivers mainly cross-border e-commerce goods.

According to the newspaper, the flight leaves Haikou twice a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. The first cargo plane flew from the Chinese city to Bournemouth with a stopover in Vienna on May 8.

At present, cargo flights from Meilan International Airport to Haikou operate on the following routes: Haikou-Vienna-Bournemouth, Haikou-Bournemouth, Incheon-Haikou-Singapore, and Haikou-Paris.

On June 1, 2020, the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the State Council of China published a program creating the Hainan free trade port. The document covers the creation of a special customs zone on this tropical island. The Chinese authorities intend to generally complete the free port’s construction in 2025 - by that time, the island should have a mechanism in place to ensure open trade and investment. By 2035, the authorities plan to secure free trade and investment, cross-border movement of capital, travel, and freight traffic in Hainan.