Liu Qiangdong "Gives Wings"? Jingdong Airlines has passed the preliminary review, and the express delivery fight went to the sky

After more than ten years of silent hard work, JD Logistics, as a rising star, has finally added a vital link to its logistics sector.

On May 23, the Civil Aviation Administration of China announced on its official website that the Civil Aviation Administration of East China has completed a preliminary review of Jiangsu Jingdong Cargo Airlines Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jingdong Airlines"). According to civil aviation experts, this announcement means that there is no longer an obstacle to JD Airlines’ official operations and it may soon make its first flight.

In addition to e-commerce and retail, JD.com has crossed over into the logistics industry. This time JD Logistics has opened up a new territory in the sky, becoming the third private cargo airline after SF Airlines and YTO Airlines, and has successfully It has occupied a place in the battle for logistics "air supremacy".

In the express delivery industry where there are many strong competitors, competition has become increasingly fierce, and now the fight has reached the sky.

As early as 2018, JD Logistics completed the flight of an all-cargo aircraft for the first time, and has since entered a new era of all-cargo aircraft. It was rumored that at that time, JD.com wanted to acquire Jinpeng Airlines, which specializes in international freight. Although it later failed, Liu Qiangdong's personal participation in negotiations was enough to show that he attached great importance to the acquisition.

At the end of the same year, JD Group signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement with the Nantong Municipal Government, with a total investment of 20 billion yuan, using Nantong Xingdong International Airport as its main operating airport, and planned to build it into a global aviation hub for JD Logistics Freight hub.

In August 2020, JD Logistics will successfully acquire Express Express under its umbrella. As my country's first high-efficiency logistics company that can arrive in the morning and arrive in the evening, Yuejue Express has bet on air cargo very early. Last year, Yueyu Express contributed 11.3 billion yuan to JD Logistics’ annual revenue, accounting for 10% of its total revenue.

A month later, JD Logistics once again announced that it had reached a strategic cooperation agreement with Henan Civil Aviation Development Investment Co., Ltd. Henan Aviation Investment owns part of the equity of Cargolux, Europe's largest cargo airline, and has successfully developed an "Aerial Silk Road" running through China and Europe. This cooperation successfully helped JD.com expand its European cross-border logistics network and further internationalize its business.

In addition to Nantong, JD Group also reached a comprehensive strategic cooperation agreement with the Wuhu Municipal Government of Anhui City in October 2020, planning to invest 95 billion yuan to build a fleet of up to 500 aircraft and a cargo throughput of 800 10,000 tons of airlines to build a global super port.

At the end of 2020, JD Logistics only had 620 air cargo routes. Just one year later, this data increased by 60% to 1,000, further demonstrating Liu Qiangdong’s desire to “give wings” to JD Logistics. determination.

In August 2021, JD Airlines received approval from the Civil Aviation Administration to begin preparations. Now that the preparatory work has been basically completed, apply to the Civil Aviation Administration for issuance of a public air transport enterprise operating license. At present, the preliminary review has been completed.

It is reported that JD Airlines plans to introduce three B737-800 freighters. This freighter is an improved product of the new generation Boeing 737NG series, with a range of approximately 5,665 kilometers and a maximum take-off weight of 78,245 kilograms. It is a standard entry-level configuration model for domestic express aviation.

In addition, JD Airlines has also signed labor contracts with 7 transport personnel, 14 flight personnel, 18 dispatch personnel and 42 maintenance personnel to ensure that the professional talents needed by the airline are as follows: Count in place.

In terms of management, after many changes, the legal representative of JD Airlines was finally served by Chen Yanlei. It is understood that Chen Yanlei joined JD.com Group in April 2007 and has experienced in various positions in JD Logistics. According to JD Logistics’ prospectus, Chen Yanlei also serves as the group’s executive director.

At the same time, Qichacha’s equity perspective shows that Nantong Airport Group Co., Ltd. invested 150 million yuan to hold 25% of JD Airlines’ shares, and Suqian Jingdong Zhanrui Enterprise Management Co., Ltd. invested 450 million yuan to hold 75% of the shares. ***Same establishment. Suqian Jingdong Zhanrui is 100% controlled by Xi'an Jingdong Xincheng Information Technology Co., Ltd., and Liu Qiangdong holds 33.75% of the latter's equity. Therefore, the biggest ultimate beneficiary of JD Airlines is Liu Qiangdong.

Although Liu Qiangdong announced in April this year that he would no longer serve as CEO of JD.com, he still holds real power when it comes to long-term strategic design and major strategic decision-making and deployment.

With Liu Qiangdong, the founder of JD.com Group, in charge, JD Airlines is ready to take off and has great ambitions. A vice president of JD Group once said, “In the future, JD Logistics will continue to vigorously promote its aviation strategy and gradually build a logistics network that can deliver goods nationwide within 24 hours, from China to the world within 48 hours, and to other countries within 48 hours. Feel the speed of China. ”

However, JD Airlines needs to pay attention to the intensifying competition in the logistics industry under the current situation.

Insiders pointed out that the rapid development of modern logistics such as e-commerce, express delivery, cold chain, and warehousing has led to changes in the overall structure of the market. my country has also gradually transformed from traditional aviation logistics to modern aviation logistics. , this is a critical period for the transformation and upgrading of the logistics industry.

Long before JD Logistics entered the air cargo field, SF Airlines and YTO Airlines had already begun to take shape. They owned 70 and 12 all-cargo aircraft respectively.

In March 2022, an all-cargo aircraft was selected as the test aircraft for the test flight of Ezhou Huahu Airport invested and constructed by SF Express. Huahu Airport is located in the hinterland of central China. SF Express has set this as an axis to radiate to the surrounding areas. Compared with the traditional point-to-point freight mode, the axis-radiation mode will further reduce the overall cost and improve timeliness. With an investment of more than 32 billion yuan, Huahu Airport has also become the first cargo hub airport in Asia and the fourth in the world.

The aviation logistics hub project invested by YTO Aviation in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province also held a signing ceremony with the municipal government as early as June 2020. In addition, the parent company of YTO Airlines will also build a series of supporting related projects in Jiaxing around this project, such as a logistics research center, a super intermodal transportation center, a business distribution center, etc. The overall investment amount will reach 12.2 billion yuan.

The three logistics companies, SF Express, YTO, and JD.com, which all started with investments of tens of billions of yuan, have also regarded fleets and airports as standard equipment, and have launched fierce competition in the sky.

Although JD Airlines has just entered the market, it has the advantage of having a large and stable supply of goods backed by JD.com, a leading e-commerce platform. However, in addition to the buyers and sellers of JD Mall, the third-party users of JD Logistics are far less than those of SF Express and YTO. For example, when we usually send and receive express delivery outside of the e-commerce scenario, the first thing we think of may be SF Express or Three Links and One Express, but we rarely think of JD.com.

Therefore, at present, each of the three parties has its own advantages. In this industry that values ??scale, whoever’s logistics network is more complete, more efficient, and whose overall scale is larger is likely to have the last laugh.

Written at the end:

At the end of April this year, SF Airlines’ 70th all-cargo aircraft was officially put into operation, and JD Airlines has only initially planned to introduce three all-cargo aircraft. Prior to this, JD Logistics only printed its LOGO on other people's aircraft by cooperating with other airlines. Compared with SF Airlines, the gap between the two was even wider than that of JD.com and Taobao before 2010. Be big. However, everything is difficult at the beginning. Now JD Airlines has made a good start. I believe that in the near future, JD Logistics and even JD Group will undergo transformation.