Yangtze Delta to become express delivery service hub in five years

Over the next five years, the airport cluster in the Yangtze Delta region -- Pudong, Hongqiao, Xiaoshan, Wuxi and Lukou -- is expected to form an express delivery hub, with airports in Ningbo, Yiwu, Wenzhou, Taizhou and Lianyungang forming a second-tier express hub.
The prosperous Yangtze Delta region is home to many foreign enterprises as well as home to hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese. The demand for express delivery service in this area is very strong. Data shows that 510 million pieces were express-delivered around the delta in 2008, generating an operating income of 14.7 billion yuan. It is projected that the delta area express service is to grow 25 percent annually over the next five years. At present, aviation infrastructure in the delta region is maturing, with Shanghai’s Pudong and Hongqiao airports emerging as international hubs; and Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Wuxi airports as regional hubs, supported by connections to Nantong, Wenzhou, Yiwu, Changzhou, etc. This sets the scene for the establishment of China Postal’s air express network in the delta region. According to the five-year plan, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Wuxi and Nanjing will be developed as land express hubs, with Ningbo, Jiaxing, Jinhua, Wenzhou, Taizhou, Nantong, Yiwu, Taizhou acting as second-tier land express hubs. Enterprises will be encouraged to use the high-speed inter-city passenger rail and flight routes in the delta region to accomplish next-day delivery between prefectures and next-morning delivery between major counties within a region.