The date Sept. 26 witnessed the 10th anniversary of the opening of Huai'an Lianshui International Airport and the opening of the whole cargo route from Huai'an to Shenzhen, which is a crucial step to the construction of the air cargo hub.

Before the first flight, Huai'an airport held a forum on the 10th anniversary, on which it signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Zhongzhou Airlines. Then, a cargo plane carrying 14 tons of the hairy crabs from the Hongze Lake took off from Huai'an airport and flew to Shenzhen, marking the official opening of the whole cargo flight route from Huai'an to Shenzhen. Zhongzhou Airlines is responsible for the operation of this route. It is estimated that the daily volume of inbound and outbound cargo is about 20 tons, among which the outbound cargo mainly includes express packages, circuit boards and aquatic products, and the inbound freight is mostly SF express packages. The close economic and trade exchanges between Huai'an and Shenzhen produce a large demand for air cargo transportation. The opening of this route will fundamentally solve the insufficiency of abdominal compartment capacity from Huai'an to Shenzhen, meet the demand of pallet cargo transportation, and further boost the construction of Huai'an air cargo hub.

Huai'an Airport officially which opened to air traffic on Sept. 26, 2010, has grown from a small airport to a medium-sized one. The number of flights increased from three to thirty-six. The passenger throughput jumped from 230 thousand to 2.34 million. The volume of rail freight grew from 1556 tons to 10000 tons. Thus, Huai'an Airport has become a strong driving force for the economic and social development of Huai'an.