HAIKOU /China/, October 1. /TASS/. The southern Chinese province of Hainan is building a passenger and cargo transport system with truly global reach, Hainan Ribao reported.

According to the newspaper, joint projects with participation government bodies and businesses have become a significant driver in the development of the vast air route network of the Hainan Free Trade Port. This has also been identified as another key factor in the successful growth of the province’s duty-free retail sector.

The newspaper noted that the fifth freedom of the air regime, which allows companies in a partner country to import goods from third countries, is playing an increasingly significant role in increasing the volume of regular goods transported by aviation. This format has also helped Hainan boost its international passenger flows and attract more foreign tourists. For example, the recently launched Tbilisi-Haikou-Milan air route eliminated a range of cross-border logistics difficulties, creating the island’s first “duty-free express route,” preparations for which took more than a year. As a result, delivery times have been significantly reduced. Previously, goods from Europe first had to be transported to Hong Kong or Singapore, then to Guangzhou or Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, before finally reaching Hainan.

Moreover, such channels, once agreements were concluded between local duty-free operators and their overseas counterparts, have greatly simplified the coordination of transport routes and pricing, taking into account objective costs. To ensure the return flow of cargo, efficiently filling the compartments of aircraft arriving from other countries, Hainan is developing a cross-border e-commerce distribution center, including through partnerships with major retail platforms.

Chen Lei, Deputy Director of the Marketing Department at Phoenix International Airport (in the resort city of Sanya on Hainan’s southern coast), noted that such routes in particular help to “fill gaps” in air transport connections with key aviation hubs in Western Europe. According to her, this gives China’s southernmost province accelerated, direct access not only to the European Union’s cargo market but also its passenger market. It is expected that as flight frequencies are optimized and service quality improves, traveling to Hainan from various parts of the world will become increasingly comfortable. This, the report underlined, will serve as an important incentive for expanding international exchanges and cooperation across a wide range of areas.

The expansion of Hainan’s international cargo air transport network is developing at a rapid pace. Since the beginning of this year, Meilan Airport in Haikou, the provincial capital, has opened six new international routes. In addition to Tbilisi and Milan, flights now connect to Paris, Cyprus, Rome, and Tel Aviv. As a result, the island is steadily transforming into a transcontinental transit hub, while the broader region is shaping into a unified logistics zone covering Southeast and East Asia, with plans to eventually extend to Africa and North America.