China’s air cargo sector has kept posting robust growth so far this year, with the parcel airlift volume surging to 9.243 million tons in the January-November period, a year-on-year increase of 13.6 percent, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

International routes were the key growth engine in the first 11 months, with the parcel airlift volume rising 21.8 percent year on year.

"Continued improvement of residents' consumption structure has driven rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, fresh food cold chain and other sectors, enabling the international freight market to maintain rapid growth," said Zhong Shan, chief economist at the Aviation Transport Research Institute under China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology.

In the January-November period, the number of cargo flights operated by Chinese airliners continued to increase, with cargo flights reaching 170 cities in 70 other countries, an increase of 8 countries and 27 cities respectively compared with last year. The average weekly cargo flight volume increased by 15.7 percent over the same period of last year.

In the 11-month period, rapid growth in emerging consumption models such as livestream shopping and instant retail generated steady demand for sustained development of the aviation cargo industry.