A launching ceremony for the Addis Ababa-Liège-Changsha-Addis Ababa route, Hunan's first fifth-freedom freight air route, was held in Changsha recently.

The opening of this route will significantly enhance international air freight accessibility and transportation efficiency at Changsha airport, and accelerate export of high value-added products, such as e-commercial commodities, medicinal products, and high and new technologies, to the whole Africa and some countries in South America. It is an air route connecting four continents.

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.

The flights will be operated by the Ethiopian Airlines, the first African airline entering the Chinese market. Over the past five decades, the airline has been committed to building an air bridge between China and Africa. It has been steadily operating the Changsha-Addis Ababa charter cargo flights since July, 2022. The number of the flights has reached 207 as of March 24.

The Ethiopian Airlines will continue to be committed to promoting building Changsha into an international aviation hub, developing more air routes, and launching more passenger and cargo flights, a manager of the airline said, adding that, it will strive to make greater contributions to the business and economic exchanges among China, Africa, and Europe.

The opening of the Addis Ababa-Liège-Changsha-Addis Ababa fifth-freedom freight air route will further facilitate the air freight transport between Hunan and Europe and Africa, said a manager of the Hunan Airport Corporation. Beyond that, it will play a significant role in promoting Hunan products to the world while introducing quality products into Hunan via economic and trade cooperation, and provide a more convenient channel and a broader platform for economic and trade exchanges among Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Since the opening of the first all-cargo route in 2017, Changsha has launched a cumulative total of 24 routes linking with five continents and dovetailing with the EU, U.S.A, and ASEAN. In the first quarter of this year, the passenger throughput of Changsha airport has increased by 33.7 percent year on year to 7.353 million, including 211,000 international passenger trips, up 559.4 percent. Meanwhile, it has handled 46,000 tonnes of cargo and parcels, rising 22.2 percent over last year, of which international cargo and parcels amounted to 15,000 tonnes, up 28.4 percent.