Shanghai "relocates" the airport to the doorstep of enterprises, reducing logistics time for companies by 30%.

On the early morning of April 2, on Rongjiang Road in Songjiang District, Shanghai, one after another, trucks fully loaded with cross-border export goods left the warehouse. Unlike before, these vehicles were not heading to the Pudong International Airport Cargo Terminal located more than 60 kilometers away, but instead drove straight into a brand-new building within the Songjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone—the front-loaded cargo terminal. Here, after the goods undergo efficient sorting, security inspections, and customs examinations, they will be precisely matched and connected to air cargo flights through intensive, centralized transportation.

What is a front-loaded cargo terminal? Put simply, it is the “satellite site” of an airport cargo terminal. It is a new logistics service model that shifts the core functions of a traditional airport cargo terminal—for example, professional service functions such as security inspections, customs supervision, and pallet loading, consolidation, and related services—to industrial parks, comprehensive bonded zones, or areas where enterprises are concentrated. In effect, it is like “moving” the airport to the doorstep of enterprises.

With the complete export process carried out at a location closer to the enterprise, and then transported directly to the airport for loading by dedicated vehicles, it effectively avoids problems commonly found in traditional logistics models—such as fragmented links—and the situation where enterprises have to wait a long time at airport port cargo terminals for the inspection and security checks of goods. It significantly improves customs clearance efficiency and reduces logistics costs.

The front-loaded cargo terminal in the Songjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone is Shanghai’s first aviation front-loaded cargo terminal, and it was officially put into operation on November 12, 2025. Since the beginning of this year, the front-loaded cargo terminal’s business has shown strong growth momentum. Its cumulative processed cargo volume has reached 422.8 tons, including more than 1.02 million cross-border e-commerce parcels for export, with a cargo value exceeding 100 million yuan.

“There are customs personnel stationed there, as well as airport security personnel, and so on. They carry out joint on-site office work, which reduces communication costs and enables a faster response.” A person in charge of the front-loaded cargo terminal in the Songjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone said.

“Because we handle everything ‘one-stop’ right at our doorstep, our logistics time has been shortened by 30%, our overall operating costs have been lowered, and our market competitiveness has been further enhanced as well.” Zhang Liang, the person in charge of customs affairs at Shanghai Hongshang International Logistics Co., Ltd., said.

A front-loaded cargo terminal is not only a logistics channel, but also an accelerator for industrial upgrading. The Songjiang front-loaded cargo terminal pioneered the “zone-port linkage” model, deeply integrating the functions of the air-hub port with advantages such as bonded warehousing and tax-and-bond benefits in the comprehensive bonded zone, so that enterprises can enjoy overlapping preferential policies. Relevant personnel said that the commissioning of the front-loaded cargo terminal not only connects the entire chain of cross-border logistics, but also releases strong momentum in areas such as upgrading platform functions, optimizing the industrial ecosystem, and improving the quality and efficiency of opening up to the outside world. With the front-loaded cargo terminal as a support point, the Songjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone is expected to actively cluster air-cargo-preference-oriented industries such as cross-border e-commerce, biopharmaceuticals, and advanced equipment, explore the development of high-value-added businesses such as international transfer, consolidation, and cold-chain logistics, and form a virtuous cycle of “logistics driving trade and trade promoting industry.”

The reporter learned that recently, the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Transport has, together with relevant units including the East China branch of the Civil Aviation Administration, Shanghai Customs, Shanghai Airport Group, and Eastern Airlines Logistics, from multiple aspects such as operational optimization, hardware upgrades, and enhancement of regulatory capabilities, further promoted the sustained and sound development of front-loaded cargo terminals.

In the future, the front-loaded cargo terminal in the Songjiang Comprehensive Bonded Zone will actively explore multimodal transport in combination with rail and other modes of transportation, extend its service radius to areas around the Yangtze River Delta, and build the cargo terminal into a public service platform for cross-border logistics aggregation and distribution in the southwestern Shanghai region.