While the three large airline groups strengthen the development of air cargo, some local airlines and private airlines also quickly take part in the competition. At the same time, some foreign cargo giants are entering into Chinese market through all kinds of means, such as joint venture, alliance, and connecting transportation.

For the air cargo industry, the competition is not just among airlines, but also among airports. The domestic airports all keep improving the facilities for cargo service, and use all the ways, even provide financial subsidy to attract airlines to open international cargo routes.

Looking at the current situations of air cargo, the traditional sales agents gradually disappeared. More and more agents are transforming into logistic suppliers, which can provide system solutions combining with several transportation ways. And they also face up the competition with those international giants, such as FedEx、UPS、DHL、TNT、OCS、ABX, especially China honors the commitment to open logistic service since joining the WTO in December 2005.

Details: Shanghai aims for the cargo gaint

Since 1993, China's air cargo has been developing fast. The average increasing rate of turnover volume of freight is 14.2%. According to the statistics of ICAO in 2004, China's cargo transport volume has reached 7.18x10 t·km, which increased 24.0% comparing to same period, and ranked the third place, only after United States and Japan. China's air cargo industry takes up low shares in the international market, which has great potential. It also proved that China's air cargo market develops so fast that international and domestic airlines have already paid attention to it.

Because of the imbalanced development trend between China' East, Middle and West, the air cargo transport market is also unbalanced, which is reflected in following aspects: First, air cargo concentrates in China's East. The air cargo network is very underdevelopment, and the volume distribution is quite unbalanced. Second, from the cargo volume distribution, the domestic cargo is mainly concentrated on the routes in the East or related areas. Third, international air cargo volume is concentrated on several routes from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. And from international air cargo throughput, Shanghai Pudong Airport has taken up 64.6% in 2004, and the second is Beijing, taking up 12.3%.

Comparing international with domestic air cargo throughputs, the rate of international air cargo throughput has increased to 38.6% in 2004 from 26.8% in 1995, while the rate of domestic air cargo throughput has decreased from 73.2% to 61.4%.

In 2004, there are only 37 freight aircrafts in China. Compared to 754 passenger jets, the scale and rate of cargo aircraft fleet are lower. And the transport competency is also low. The transport competency of Air China's B747-400COM freight aircraft in 2004 was 58.5%; the transport competency of 3 B747-400F freight aircrafts of Air China and China Southern Airlines was 58.4%; the transport competency of B747-400F freight aircraft of Shanghai Airlines was 48.8%. And the transport competency of 6 MD11F freight aircrafts of China Eastern Airlines was 73.2%, which was comparatively high in China.