Cainiao launches weekly chartered flights from Singapore to Hainan

The flights will bring goods from Singapore to Hainan’s Free Trade Zone.

Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, today announced its plans to launch seven weekly chartered cargo flights, designated for shipping international goods from Singapore to duty-free shops in Hainan’s Free Trade Zone via its traveling hotspots in Sanya and Haikou.

This comprises of five weekly Haikou-Singapore direct flights and twice weekly Singapore-Sanya-Guangzhou flights. Both routes aim to provide cross-border logistics services for global beauty and luxury brands to enter Hainan, and also to help export domestic e-commerce goods to Singapore, enhancing trilateral trade between Singapore, Hainan and China’s Greater Bay Area (GBA).

With the chartered flights the imported goods will be able to arrive in Hainan from Singapore within 3 hours, and be ready for sale in duty-free shops within 12 hours after clearing customs and dispatched from the warehouse, Cainiao said.

Before these direct flights were launched, it normally took two to three days to import goods to Hainan as they had to first land in Shenzhen or Guangzhou, before being transported to Hainan via trucks and ferries.

This is Cainiao’s first foray into the Hainan Free Trade Zone and similar plans to launch more dedicated freight routes between Hainan and other countries are underway.

“Hainan will be a pivotal priority for Cainiao in the coming years, and we expect to open more direct cargo routes to link Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Europe to Hainan soon,” said James Zhao, Cainiao’s general manager for global supply chain.