JD.com has flown its first air cargo service, carrying parcels from Shenzhen to Wuxi.
The Boeing 737-300F is a partnership between JD and Zhejiang Loong Airlines, who will fly six round trips a week covering business-to-customer service and parcel delivery throughout China.
JD will provide a faster and more reliable service to customers in the Yangtze River Delta and Great Bay Area.
Customers are able to place orders in the afternoon and receive them the next morning, expanding coverage by 300% to 24 cities.
The B737-300F can carry 14 tons of cargo covering 130m3 . JD plans to open more cargo routes between Wuxi and Tianjin, and later add Beijing – Tianjin – Hebei services.
JD has also released data showing that delivery orders increased nearly 70% during the May 1-5 holiday, nearly double the industry average.
Official Chinese data says the industry collected a total of 1.1 billion parcels, up 41.8% year-on-year, while the industry sent over one billion, up 38.9%.
JD’s data says deliveries in Beijing increased nearly 60%, Chengdu and XI’an were both up nearly 70%, and Wuhan grew 80%.