Recently, China Postal Airlines Flight CF292 carrying 12.8 tonnes of Davao durian from the Philippines landed safely at Quanzhou Jinjiang International Airport in Fujian province, marking the official launch of the fresh fruit backhaul freight service on the Quanzhou–Clark air route. This service has filled the gap of air-borne fresh fruit imports in Quanzhou, and completed the first-ever fruit import business at Quanzhou port.

It is reported that the designated supervision site for imported fruits at Quanzhou Jinjiang International Airport obtained approval from the General Administration of Customs in August, making it the first of its kind within Quanzhou Customs District. Working together with the Customs, airport ground handling companies and other entities, Quanzhou Postal Branch has developed an integrated service solution featuring pre-cooling at the origin, direct air freight, expedited customs clearance and terminal distribution. After being sorted and pre-cooled at the origin, fruits are directly transferred via cold-chain trucks to Clark International Airport for aircraft loading. Upon arrival in Quanzhou, the fruits immediately go through the customs green channel for seamless customs clearance. Once released, they will be swiftly distributed to nearby wholesale fruit marketplaces through the cold-chain fleet of Quanzhou Postal Branch. Temperature and time are strictly controlled throughout the whole process, enabling the exotic fruits to be “harvested today and available on domestic market tomorrow”.

To foster the market for backhaul air freight in its initial stage, Quanzhou Postal Branch has implemented a strategy of “free trial plus leading clients driving”. It will offer transportation support to first-order and industrial top clients for a certain period of time to accelerate the gathering of cargo supply. As the volume of backhaul fresh fruits steadily increases, it will introduce a market-oriented pricing mechanism step by step. In this way, it will promote the international routes operated by China Postal Airlines to shift from “outbound one-way flights” to “fully loaded two-way services”, supporting bilateral economic and trade development. According to the operation plan, each backhaul flight on this route will carry more than 10 tonnes of fresh fruits, generating an estimated annual import value of over 10 million yuan (approximately 1.48 million US dollars).