By land, by sea, and now by air, China is stepping up efforts to boost the Belt and Road Initiative. The new "Air Silk Road" is where one will find planes belonging to "Cargolux" -- an air carrier transporting cargo between Central China and Europe's Luxembourg. CGTN's Li Jianhua reports.

"Welcome to Luxembourg. It's almost nine forty local time in Luxembourg, and we're on the way to Zhengzhou."

Flying the Air Silk Road, a manager with Cargolux records trip information ahead of a flight. Heading all the way from Luxembourg to central China's Henan Province, the cargo aircraft brings Europe to Asia. On average, 18 flights make the trip each week. As many as five more are added when necessary. Official figures show the cargo transported via Cargolux surpassed 140-thousand tons in 2017. Experts say the number is likely to increase 20-thousand by the end of this year.

JACK YUAN, VICE PRESIDENT LUXEMBOURG PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE, HENAN CIVIL AVIATION "By building an air logistics ecosystem and developing supply chain finance, we can create a hub economy and attract more resources to Zhengzhou. Those include high-end manufacturing, service industries and finance and insurance companies. Doing this will help us upgrade our regional industrial structure."

And this drew a mobile phone company from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen here for its advanced transport system. Walking into the workshop, you can hear workers testing the newly-made phones. Each month 400-thousand mobile phones are produced here ready to be sent abroad by the ton. High-end smart phones -- equipped with mini-projectors -– can also be found here. The convenient transportation methods help France to buy 30-thousand of them each year.

FENG MIN, GENERAL MANAGER HENAN SUPER GRAND ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY "Our customers are very particular about the time it takes for them to get the products. The Air Silk Road, to a large extent, has made it easier to send phones to our customers – it takes only two to three days, and they usually get the products on time."

Besides electronic products, clothes, artifacts and car parts are all loaded on the plane and sent to Europe.

LI JIANHUA ZHENGZHOU, HENAN PROVINCE "The air route connects two major transport hubs - one in China, one in Europe. Tons of products are transported from Europe to Central China's Henan Province - then distributed to other parts of China, and vice versa. And the cargo aircraft behind me - loaded with Chinese goods - is about to fly back to Europe. LJH, CGTN, ZHENGZHOU, HENAN PROVINCE."