Ezhou Huahu Airport, the fourth professional freight airport in the world and the first in Asia, was put into operation in Hubei Province on Sunday.

A Boeing 767-300 cargo plane took off from the Ezhou Huahu Airport at 11:36 am Sunday, marking the official start of operations of China's first professional cargo hub airport.

The new airport is equipped with a cargo terminal of 23,000 square meters, a freight transit center of nearly 700,000 square meters, and 124 parking stands and two runways. It is expected to improve the transport efficiency of air freight and further promote the country's opening up.

The number of parcels handled by China's courier companies hit a record high of over 108 billion last year, and is expected to maintain stable growth in 2022, according to the State Post Bureau.

Within 1.5 hours from the airport, the goods are able to reach the five major national city clusters in China, including the Yangtze River Delta city clusters and the Pearl River Delta city clusters. Now, domestic goods are expected to arrive in one day and international goods in two days.