Secrets of Changsha Huanghua Airport's International Cargo Hub Services

Basic Information

Name: Changsha Huanghua International Cargo Airport

IATA Code: CSX

ICAO Code: ZGHA

Address: South of Tongguan Avenue, East of Airport Boulevard, Huanghua Town, Changsha County, Hunan Province, China

Facilities & Scale: The airport features four air cargo terminals with a total area of 82,471 square meters. Terminal 3 is a dedicated international cargo terminal, designed to handle an annual cargo throughput of 110,000 tons, doubling the capacity of the previous facilities. It is equipped with two runways: the first runway is 3,200 meters long and 45 meters wide, while the second runway is 3,800 meters long and 60 meters wide, capable of accommodating large cargo aircraft such as the Airbus A380. In 2024, the airport's cargo throughput reached approximately 210,000 tons, with international freight routes connecting 24 international destinations across five continents, making it a significant air logistics hub in the central region.

Contact Information

Cargo Inquiry Hotline: +86-731-96777

Official Website: hunanairport.cn

International Freight Routes

International Cargo Airlines

Changsha Huanghua International Cargo Airport has established a global freight network covering five continents. International and regional destinations include London Heathrow, Incheon, Narita, Osaka, Ulaanbaatar, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Vientiane, Suvarnabhumi, Don Mueang, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Bali, Manado, Sandakan, Nha Trang, Da Nang, Chiang Mai, Phnom Penh, Nairobi, and more. Special freight destinations cover Kansai, Incheon, Ho Chi Minh City, Manila, Suvarnabhumi, Chennai, Liege, Novosibirsk, Bournemouth, Anchorage, and more, meeting a variety of freight needs.

International & Regional Destinations

Specialized Freight Destinations

International Air Cargo Types

As an important window for Hunan's opening up to the outside world, Changsha Huanghua International Cargo Airport has formed a diversified air freight system covering cross-border e-commerce, high-value industrial products, fresh and chilled goods, and special cargo, relying on its expanding international route network and efficient logistics support capabilities. The types of international air freight cargo are rich and varied, covering the following main categories:

• Cross-border E-commerce and General Cargo: Including light and small items such as clothing, hats, textiles, electronic products (e.g., data cables, mobile phone accessories), and home goods. These are transported through all-cargo flights in a "Changsha direct flight + overseas distribution" model, reducing transportation time by over 80% compared to traditional sea freight. For example, the Changsha to Bangkok cross-border e-commerce route operates regular weekly round-trips with a single load capacity of up to 30 tons.
• Pharmaceuticals and High-tech Products: Mainly involving vaccine reagents, medical devices, precision instruments, semiconductor components, etc. Leveraging the fifth freedom rights, these products can be quickly transported to African and European markets via Changsha. The Ethiopian Airlines Changsha hub route once transported 99.6 tons of medical products and high-tech items in a single batch.
• Perishable Goods: Including imported seafood (such as Boston lobsters, Vietnamese large meat crabs), fresh aquatic products, and tropical fruits. These are transported through cold chain facilities to ensure temperature control from "airport to table." In 2025, the annual growth rate of imported perishable goods at Changsha Airport exceeded 150%, with a single flight's maximum load reaching 100 tons.
• Special Cargo: Including oversized and over-dimensional equipment (such as urban construction facilities with a single piece up to 10.28 meters long), new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and other high-risk goods. The airport's logistics team uses customized pallets and multi-platform vehicle collaboration to ensure the safe transportation of precision instruments and semiconductor components.
• Automobiles and Spare Parts: Relying on the synergy between the China-Europe rail service and air freight, automobile components and engine parts are exported to the Eurasian market through air-rail intermodal transportation, reducing transportation time by 60% compared to sea freight. In the first quarter of 2024, the export value of Hunan's automotive enterprises through air freight and the China-Europe rail service reached $118 million.

Required Documentation

Basic Documents

Commercial Invoice

Packing List

Airway Bill

Certificate of Origin (COO)

Special Cargo Additions

Perishables: Animal/plant quarantine certificate, temperature records

Pharmaceuticals: Drug export license, cold chain agreement

Dangerous Goods: Dangerous Goods Declaration (DGD), MSDS

E-commerce: 9610/1210 declaration, platform sales records

Import Clearance

Import country-specific permits (e.g., food hygiene certificate)

Destination agent authorization (for transshipment)

Air Freight Booking & Agency Services

As a professional service provider deeply rooted in the air logistics field, we leverage airport hub resources and global network layout to offer safe, efficient, and customized international air freight solutions to our clients. With the group's financial strength and the synergy of the air freight industry chain, we have established strategic partnerships with several international airlines, ensuring stable cargo space and a flexible pricing system on major routes to Europe, America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Our ISO-certified standardized operating procedures and intelligent information management system ensure full visibility tracking of goods from collection, customs clearance to distribution.

Our core strengths span the entire service chain: In the cross-border e-commerce sector, we achieve 48-hour delivery to the Southeast Asian market through the "direct flight + overseas warehouse" model, supporting diversified customs clearance needs such as 9610/1210. For high-value goods, we have a professional team providing temperature-controlled transportation and compliance document processing for pharmaceutical cold chains and precision instruments. For special cargo transportation, we rely on the airport's dangerous goods operation qualifications and experience in handling oversized goods to customize exclusive packaging and lifting solutions. Additionally, we have innovatively launched air-rail intermodal products, connecting the China-Europe rail service with the air freight network to reduce traditional sea freight time by over 60%, offering a cost-effective choice for bulk commodities such as automotive parts and machinery equipment.

We are always customer-oriented, providing 7×24-hour port coordination services. Through our pre-declaration system and intelligent document review technology, we enable rapid customs clearance for cross-border goods. Relying on our global agent network covering major airports, we offer value-added services such as destination port clearance, delivery, and return and replacement labeling. Whether it is the timeliness requirements of cross-border e-commerce sellers or the supply chain optimization needs of manufacturing enterprises, we will create a logistics experience that exceeds expectations with our professional team and resource integration capabilities.

Export Customs Clearance

Changsha Huanghua International Cargo Airport, as a national-level air hub, has established an efficient and convenient export customs clearance system, relying on its complete port facilities and innovative regulatory mechanisms. Its export customs clearance process strictly follows customs regulations while leveraging regional policy advantages to provide full-chain customs services for enterprises.

Basic Process

• Declaration Preparation: Enterprises need to complete customs registration in advance and submit electronic customs declarations within 24 hours before the goods arrive at the regulated area and before loading. They should also prepare basic documents such as commercial invoices, packing lists, and airway bills. Special goods (such as dangerous goods and perishable goods) require additional quarantine certificates and temperature records.
• Customs Review: The system automatically verifies the declared data. For goods with risks, manual document review or inspection instructions will be triggered. Enterprises can transmit data in advance through the pre-declaration system to shorten on-site processing time.
• Inspection and Release: Customs will conduct random inspections or video spot checks on the goods. After confirming that the goods match the documents, enterprises pay taxes and fees and obtain electronic release certificates, allowing the goods to enter the loading phase.

Policy Advantages

"Domestic Free Port" Bonded Policy: Relying on the "tax refund upon entry" mechanism of the Huanghua Comprehensive Bonded Zone, enterprises can apply for export tax rebates as soon as their goods enter the zone, increasing capital turnover efficiency by over 30%. In 2024, the equipment manufacturing industry, including construction machinery, accumulated over 500 million yuan in early tax rebates through this policy.

Smart Regulation Innovation: To address the challenges of transporting large equipment, we have introduced the "virtual license plate" and "pre-assignment" models, enabling quick passage of individual vehicles in "one ticket, multiple vehicles" situations. The overall customs clearance time is compressed to within 2 hours, which is 50% faster than traditional models.

Multimodal Transport Synergy: We have opened up air-rail and air-sea intermodal channels, allowing enterprises to dynamically modify customs declarations based on the actual port of exit, avoiding the costs of returning goods. Cross-border e-commerce goods can reach the Southeast Asian market in 48 hours through the "Changsha direct flight + overseas warehouse" model.

Green Channel Guarantee: A dedicated channel is established for high-timeliness goods such as fresh and chilled goods and pharmaceuticals, enabling "7×24-hour appointment customs clearance." For example, in the African flower re-export trade, the entire process from import declaration to export release takes only 2 hours, with customs simultaneously issuing phytosanitary certificates.

Credit Grading Convenience: Incentive measures such as "release first, inspect later" and "priority inspection" are implemented for high-certification enterprises. The customs declaration modification/cancellation process is simplified, further enhancing customs clearance certainty.

Warehousing Services

Relying on modern warehousing facilities and intelligent management systems, Changsha Huanghua International Cargo Airport has established an efficient storage and distribution network covering all types of goods. It has formed a warehousing pattern with the international cargo terminal at the core and multiple functional areas working collaboratively. The warehousing system is deeply integrated with the policy advantages of "zone-port linkage" and intelligent technology innovation, providing full-process supply chain solutions for cross-border e-commerce, fresh and chilled goods, high-value industrial products, and more.

Types of Warehousing and Functional Layout

International Cargo Terminal Cluster: The international cargo terminal cluster, with Terminal 3 as the main body, has a total construction area of over 40,000 square meters and a designed annual processing capacity of 110,000 tons (expandable to 140,000 tons in the long term). It is equipped with a fully enclosed automated sorting system and a customs networked supervision platform, supporting rapid customs clearance for cross-border e-commerce "9610" and "1210" models. The terminal is adjacent to six Class E all-cargo aircraft parking positions, achieving seamless connections between "airfield - warehouse - transportation." The average time for cross-border e-commerce goods to go from warehousing to loading is compressed to within 4 hours.

Temperature-Controlled Cold Chain Zone: The cold chain zone integrates three designated supervision sites for inbound fresh and chilled aquatic products, edible aquatic animals, and fruits. It is equipped with a 52,000-square-meter intelligent cold chain warehouse, using full-temperature zone control technology from -60°C to +25°C, supporting 24/7 appointment inspections for cross-border fresh goods. Through the dedicated channel of the Huanghua Comprehensive Bonded Zone, inbound cold chain goods can achieve rapid circulation between "port and zone," reducing the average time from unloading to nationwide distribution by 30% compared to traditional models.

General Cargo and Special Cargo Warehousing: A 100,000-square-meter standardized general cargo warehouse is set up, equipped with AGV handling robots and PDA intelligent picking systems, supporting multi-warehouse collaborative management and real-time inventory visibility. For high-value goods such as precision instruments and lithium batteries, dedicated storage areas with anti-static and anti-vibration features are provided. The virtual license plate system enables quick passage of oversized goods in "one ticket, multiple vehicles" situations.

Special Services and Technological Innovations

Air Freight Pricing

The freight rate system of Changsha Huanghua International Cargo Airport fully reflects economies of scale and market competitiveness. A tiered pricing mechanism is set for goods of different weight segments, offering flexible choices for cross-border e-commerce, manufacturing, and trading enterprises. Taking the latest freight rates in April 2025 as an example, Air China's Changsha to New York route charges goods over 100 kilograms on a tiered basis, with unit prices gradually decreasing from RMB 22.5 per kilogram to RMB 17.5 per kilogram. China Southern Airlines' Changsha to Singapore route offers freight rates as low as RMB 13.8 per kilogram for goods over 1,000 kilograms, which is about 8%-12% lower than the average level of similar airlines. China Eastern Airlines' London route has a unit price of RMB 20.5 per kilogram for goods over 500 kilograms, and Hainan Airlines' Sydney route has a freight rate of RMB 16.6 per kilogram for 1,000-kilogram goods, both significantly lower than market benchmarks. Emirates' Dubai route, leveraging the fifth freedom rights, offers freight rates of RMB 20 per kilogram for goods over 500 kilograms, providing a high-cost-performance choice for the Middle East market.

Local Fee Structure

Handling Fees

Warehousing Fees

Documentation & Other Fees

Additional Charges