Imported children's toys from Duisburg arrive at Jiaxing Nanhu Airport. [Photo provided to Tide News]

Jiaxing Nanhu Airport in East China's Zhejiang province launched its first rail-road-air intermodal freight service on Aug 4, opening a new logistics route linking Europe with domestic destinations across China.

The inaugural shipment, consisting of imported children's toys from Duisburg, Germany, arrived at Jinhuanan Railway Station via the China-Europe freight train service before being transported by road to Jiaxing Nanhu Airport and flown to Guangzhou in Guangdong province.

This new service is part of Zhejiang's efforts to strengthen connectivity between inland rail hubs and airports, with the end-to-end transport time from Jinhuanan Railway Station to customers in Guangzhou reduced to less than 10 hours, about 20 percent faster than the previous road-only transfer model.

This offers greater flexibility for cross-border cargo that previously relied mainly on airports in Shanghai and Hangzhou for domestic distribution. By combining the long-haul capacity of China-Europe freight trains with air transport, Jiaxing is expected to play a complementary role within the Yangtze River Delta region's logistics network.

This trial operation follows the airport's earlier launch of a sea-air freight service and marks another step in expanding its multimodal transport network that integrates rail, road, sea, and air transport.