JD Logistics and now provides next-day or three-day delivery services to over 300 Chinese cities, after adding hundreds of air routes from 26 hub cities—including Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shanghai—since it launched its Express Delivery service last year.
The service aims to improve delivery times in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jing-Jin-Ji) and the Pearl Delta Region in southeast China and is carried out in partnership with major domestic carriers including Air China Cargo, Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines, and Hainan Airlines.
JD Logistics has also partnered with Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines and the Nantong airport in Jiangsu province, near Shanghai, which will position it for growth in the Yangtze River Delta.
Beijing-Tianjing-Heibei, the Pearl Delta Region, and the Yangtze River Delta are part of the Chinese central government’s plan to develop clusters of internationally competitive and innovative mega-cities. The three regions accounted for 40% of China’s GDP in 2018.
The expansion of JD Logistics’ express air delivery service comes amid shaky times for the company. Earlier this month, the company lowered courier salaries in the wake of huge losses. JD.com’s founder and chairman Richard Liu revealed JD Logistics had less than two years of runway before it runs out of the money. JD Logistics lost RMB 2.8 billion (USD 417.5 million) in 2018 and has failed to turn a profit in the past 12 years.
Editor: Nadine Freischlad