Passenger jets used for cargo flights to support work resumption
The turnover of cargo transport operated by China Eastern Airlines' passenger fleet has nearly quadrupled on the month since Shanghai lifted its COVID-19 lockdown on June 1.
Apart from the cargo aircraft, the Shanghai-based carrier has been using its spare passenger jetliners to operate cargo flights to meet rising logistics demand for work resumption in the city following the COVID-19 pandemic resurgence.
Eastern Air Logistics has operated 232 cargo flights using the carrier's passenger planes between June 1 and 5, transporting a total of 4,215 tons of cargo, up 3.9 times that in May, the airline said on Tuesday.
A staff in hazmat suit loads a cargo box onto the belly hold of a China Eastern Airlines passenger aircraft.
Flight MU7729 from Shanghai Pudong International Airport to Osaka, for instance, transported exports from Shanghai and other Yangtze River Delta regions to Japan on Monday.
On Tuesday morning, Flight MU7282 from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to Shanghai landed at Pudong airport with electronic accessories urgently needed by a local company that has just restored production.
The airline said it will deploy more cargo and passenger flights to support local companies' work resumption.
The airline's cargo turnover has been restored to 82 percent of what it was before the city's lockdown and COVID-19 prevention and control measures at the end of March.
A cargo aircraft of Eastern Air Logistics.
