JD.com has teamed up with Air Moldova to launch regular freighter flights to the UK as part of efforts to meet growing cross-border e-commerce demand.
Air Moldova will fly three-times-per-week using a B747-400F between Hefei Xinqiao International Airport in Anhui province and Heathrow Airport in London on behalf of JD.com.
Goods transported on the service mainly include e-commerce products and general trade products. The flight will enable transportation to European clients in as fast as 48 hours, the company said.
The move follows the expansion of its international freighter network with flights to U.S and Thailand earlier this year.
The company has also launched warehouses in Shanghai, Shenzhen and in the UK connected to the new flights.
“By launching front warehouses in Shanghai and Shenzhen, the freight route will be able to deliver products from China’s major manufacturing regions in northern, eastern and southern China,” JD.com said.
“At the same time, JD launched a self-operated warehouse in UK recently, enriching its warehouse layout in the Europe in addition to its warehouses in Poland and Germany. The combination of the freight route and local warehouse in the UK will enable an end-to-end transportation to facilitate the fast growing cross-border trade. The warehouse will also be open to local merchants in UK.”
Stard Huang, president of JD’s international logistics division, added: “We are committed to leveraging JD’s global supply chain, logistics and other infrastructure services to help boost the development of cross-border e-commerce and trade around the globe. We will also take the launch of this charter route as the opportunity to continuously upgrade our global logistics layout.”