Photo: Courtesy of China Southern Airlines

 The logistics branch of China Southern Airlines has officially opened the Guangzhou-Auckland-Sydney international cargo flight route recently. 

This is the first scheduled all-cargo flight from Chinese mainland to New Zealand by a Chinese mainland-based carrier, and it is also China Southern Airlines' first "fifth freedom" cargo route, with two-way "fifth freedom" between Australia and New Zealand.

The new route will be operated regularly by Boeing 777 freighters, which will effectively fill the capacity gap in the Oceania market, significantly shorten the cargo transportation time between China's Greater Bay Area and Australia and New Zealand, and provide more efficient logistics solutions for more than 300 cross-border e-commerce and high-end manufacturing companies in the Greater Bay Area to go overseas, the airliner said.

This route is also China Southern Airlines' first "fifth freedom" cargo route.

The "fifth freedom", also known as the third-country access right, refers to the right of an airline in a country to stop and carry passengers and cargo in a third country while operating an international route. 

Through the fifth freedom, the logistics company has successfully built a full-cargo bridge between Australia and New Zealand. By freely loading and unloading cargo in Sydney and Auckland and flexibly distributing it, it has effectively improved the accessibility of China Southern Airlines' international cargo routes and activated the Asia-Pacific transit hub function, according to the information the logistics arm with China Southern Airlines.

In recent years, China and New Zealand have continued to deepen trade cooperation in the fields of agricultural products, electronic products and consumer goods.

Since the signing of the China-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement in 2008, New Zealand's exports to China have surged from NZ$2.5 billion ($1.5 billion) to NZ$20.85 billion in 2024—an average annual growth rate of 14.1 percent. That pace far outstripped the country's export growth to the rest of the world over the same period, which averaged 7.7 percent annually.

In the first quarter of 2025, total trade between China and New Zealand reached NZ$10.51 billion, marking a year-on-year increase of 8.9 percent.

At present, the logistics arm of China Southern Airlines operates a total of 19 Boeing 777 freighters, with more than 80 scheduled international flights per week, forming a domestic full-cargo cargo route network radiating the world.

As of the end of June, a total of 117 international air cargo routes had been opened nationwide in the first half of this year, with more than 233 round-trip flights added per week, CCTV News reported recently, citing data from the aviation logistics branch of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing.

In terms of route structure, there are 54 routes to Asia, 45 routes to Europe, and 12 routes to North America. The cargo transported is mainly composed of cross-border e-commerce goods, electronic products, auto parts, and fresh goods.

Global Times