LHASA -- Southwest China's Xizang autonomous region launched its first regular all-cargo air route on Thursday, in an effort to improve its logistics connectivity with other parts of China.

A Boeing 757-200 freighter operated by SF Airlines departed from the Lhasa Konggar International Airport in the regional capital at 12:10 pm Thursday, bound for the city of Ezhou in Central China's Hubei province. The aircraft carried Xizang agricultural products, including cherry tomatoes, eggs, rapeseed oil and highland barley.

The route, scheduled to involve one round trip every week, is expected to provide a cargo capacity of more than 30 tonnes per week. It reduces transport delivery times from seven days to 10 days by land to just two to four days by air.

The new route will bring Xizang specialties to the rest of China and beyond, and allow high-quality goods from other parts of China to reach Xizang faster, said Liu Shuxin, an employee of the Xizang subsidiary of SF Express.

Liu added that with Xizang's strategic location as a gateway to South Asia, the route is expected to help products from other parts of China expand their footprint in the region.

According to official data, Xizang's civil aviation sector handled 3.7 million passenger trips and 26,000 tonnes of cargo and mail in the first half of 2025, with those figures up 3 percent and 7.9 percent year on year.