Rule of Law Network: A direct golden route activates economic and trade exchanges between Ningbo and Europe

Customs officers at Ningbo Airport introduce customs clearance regulations for overseas passengers. Photo by Hu Bobo

On May 8th, at Lishe International Airport in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, passengers taking a direct flight from Budapest, Hungary to Ningbo were able to quickly clear customs through the customs inspection channel and travel to China for business negotiations and cultural tourism.
At the same time, the belly compartment of the flight is fully loaded with electronic components, high-value cross-border e-commerce small items, and other goods, utilizing the flight's capacity to achieve simultaneous loading and unloading of passengers and cargo.
Relying on this golden air route in Central and Eastern Europe, Ningbo Customs innovatively provides regulatory services, breaks down the entire chain of personnel and cargo flow, and makes passenger routes a win-win link for economic and trade cooperation, cultural and tourism exchanges, injecting new momentum into China Central and Eastern European countries' economic and trade cooperation.
Since its opening in May 2023, the route has transported over 160000 inbound and outbound passengers, and two-way personnel exchanges have continued to be hot.
From Ningbo foreign trade enterprise leaders going to Central and Eastern Europe to receive orders, participate in exhibitions and negotiations, to Central and Eastern European businessmen coming to Ningbo to inspect investments and purchase goods, to tourists experiencing the customs of the two places, the smooth travel experience accelerates the convergence of people and business flows.
At the passenger clearance site, the customs upgraded their intelligent supervision equipment to form a "low intervention, high-efficiency" tight and timely supervision, enhancing the passenger clearance experience.
Direct flights save time, customs clearance is fast, and you can go straight to the factory for negotiations upon landing, greatly improving the efficiency of business travel. "The head of a foreign trade enterprise who travels back and forth between Ningbo and Europe for many years deeply feels this. Convenient routes and smooth customs clearance allow for a continuous flow of business and travel, accumulating abundant vitality for bilateral economic and trade cooperation.
The smooth passage of air routes is even more important. The prominent advantage of this Central and Eastern European route is the combination of passengers and cargo, as well as the linkage between passengers and cargo. Since the launch of the Cross border Trade Facilitation Special Action, Ningbo Customs has iteratively upgraded the application scenario of "One Stop Customs Clearance for Import of Central and Eastern European Goods", integrating the entire process of admission, declaration, inspection, and release, achieving one-stop query and processing for enterprises. Open exclusive green channels for characteristic agricultural products such as dairy products, alcoholic beverages, and meat products in Central and Eastern Europe, and implement priority inspection and rapid release.
In addition, in response to the characteristics of high value-added products and high transit time requirements for exported goods on air routes, in November 2025, Ningbo Customs will take the lead in implementing an innovative model of air side direct supervision in Zhejiang Province, breaking the physical barriers between domestic and international cargo terminals at airports and achieving seamless direct transfer of goods within the port area.
In this mode, goods do not need to be transported by short haul, undergo secondary security checks and disassembly, or undergo repeated loading and unloading, completely eliminating air cargo transfer bottlenecks and achieving fast loading, fast transfer, and smooth customs clearance. After the implementation of the mode, the full customs clearance of goods only takes 30 minutes, the clearance efficiency is improved by more than 80%, and the logistics cost is reduced by about 30%, "said Zhou Ting, the head of the Ningbo Airport Customs Logistics Monitoring Department under Ningbo Customs.
At present, the belly compartment of this route carries an average of over 570.59 tons of high value-added goods per year, with a cargo value exceeding 164 million yuan, covering precision electronic components, daily consumer goods, etc. In the first quarter of this year, the total import and export volume between Ningbo and Central and Eastern European countries reached 14.5 billion yuan, a month on month increase of 8%. Among them, exports were 13.1 billion yuan and imports were 1.4 billion yuan. Among them, imports of agricultural products and high-tech products increased significantly, with imports of 67.03 million yuan and 28.649 million yuan respectively, a year-on-year increase of 1.5 times and 4.3 times, respectively.
Airline connectivity, high passenger flow, active logistics, and thriving economy and trade. The convenient air passage not only brings cross-border business and cultural tourism exchanges to life, but also promotes the continuous warming of economic and trade exchanges between Ningbo and Central and Eastern European countries. Next, Ningbo Customs will continue to deepen the reform of cross-border trade facilitation, using people to bring business and travel, and logistics to promote economy and trade, injecting stronger impetus into Ningbo's construction of a China Central and Eastern European countries economic and trade cooperation demonstration zone and promoting the deep integration of bilateral economy, trade, culture and tourism. (Hu Bobo, Ding Xiaojin, Wang Tong)