SIMIC

The company said there will be five weekly Haikou-Singapore direct flights and twice weekly Singapore-Sanya-Guangzhou flights. Both routes aim to provide cross-border logistics services for global beauty and luxury brands to enter Hainan, and also to help export domestic e-commerce goods to Singapore, enhancing trilateral trade between Singapore, Hainan and China's Greater Bay Area (GBA).

The imported goods will be able to arrive in Hainan from Singapore within three hours, and be ready for sale in duty-free shops within 12 hours after clearing customs and dispatched from the warehouse.

Before these direct flights were launched, it normally takes two to three days to import goods to Hainan as they had to first land in Shenzhen or Guangzhou, before being transported to Hainan via trucks and ferries.

"This is our first foray into the Hainan Free Trade Zone and we have plans to launch more dedicated freight routes between Hainan and other countries to provide import and export merchants with faster, more efficient, and reliable logistics services, " said James Zhao, Cainiao's general manager for global supply chain.

"Hainan will be a pivotal priority for Cainiao in the coming years, and we expect to open more direct cargo routes to link Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Europe to Hainan soon."