By land, by sea, and now by air, China is stepping up efforts to boost the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as evidenced by the "Air Silk Road" where planes of the air carrier Cargolux transporting cargo between central China's Henan Province and Europe's Luxembourg. 

The cargo transported via Cargolux surpassed 140,000 tons in 2017, and the figure is highly likely to rise 13,000 by the end of 2018, according to Henan Civil Aviation Development and Investment Co., Ltd.

"By building an air logistics ecosystem and developing supply chain finance, we can create a hub economy via attracting more resources to Zhengzhou including high-end manufacturing, service industries and finance companies, thus upgrading our regional industrial structure," said Jack Yuan, Vice President of Luxembourg Project Management Office, Henan Civil Aviation. 

Henan Super Grand Electronic Technology, originally at the southern Chinese city Shenzhen, relocated to Henan Province driven by the advanced transport system "Air Silk Road", according to its general manager Feng Min. A total of 400,000 mobile phones are produced here monthly to be transported out of China by the ton.

"Our customers give high priority to the timeliness of cargo delivery. The road to a large extent has made it an easier task to send phones to our customers – merely two to three days," said the general manager.

Cargolux – Messenger between two major hubs

Since air freight initiated in 2014, shipments to and from Luxembourg has hit 147,000 tons according to the Henan Daily newspaper.

"18 flights commute between Zhengzhou and Luxembourg each week to deliver clothes, fruits, car parts, and a broad array of electronic products, constituting one third of Zhengzhou airport's total shipments," said Richard Forson, CEO of Cargolux.

Official figures show the Zhengzhou cargo airport ranked among the top 50 airports in the world in 2017, based on its total cargo shipments; and Cargolux also jumped to the sixth place from the ninth among all the international cargo airlines. 

"Zhengzhou airport's total passenger and cargo handling capacity surged 17.8 percent and 12.3 percent in the first half of 2018," said Zhang Mingchao, President of Henan Civil Aviation Development and Investment Co., Ltd.

We are seeking to open passenger flights between Zhengzhou and Luxembourg, and more cooperation is expected in fields such as finance, tourism and people-to-people exchanges in the near future, Zhang added.

Chinese President Xi Jinping in June 2017 went on record as saying China supports building a bi-directional Silk Road in the air between Zhengzhou and Luxembourg during Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel's visit to Beijing.

 "The two countries should cultivate new highlights of cooperation, including air shipment, high-end technologies, and green economy to achieve greater mutual benefits," said Xi.

Luxembourg is ready to boost cooperation within BRI's framework, Bettel claimed.

Analysts hold there is a huge potential for cooperation in air transportation when countries, particularly European ones, are helping build the China-proposed Belt and Road initiative.