Employees of Maersk Air Cargo, a unit of A.P. Moller-Maersk, load goods onto an aircraft departing for Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, at an airport in Billund, Denmark on March 20. [Photo/China Daily]

HANGZHOU -- Zhejiang province, a manufacturing and trade hub in East China, has launched a new cargo air service linking its capital city of Hangzhou with Denmark.

A Boeing 767-300 freighter of Maersk Air Cargo, loaded with 23 tons of goods that include small household appliances and auto parts, left Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport for Billund in Denmark on Thursday.

The launch expanded the Xiaoshan airport's international all-cargo air destinations to a total of 20, the airport said.

The airport has also launched regular air freight service to Chicago in the United States recently. It is China's first airport to operate scheduled cargo flights of Maersk Air Cargo, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the global shipping logistics giant Maersk.

Currently, three round trips are scheduled weekly between Hangzhou and Billund. The airport plans to increase the flight frequency of the route in the third quarter of this year.

The airport's newly launched air freight services are expected to further promote and support Zhejiang's foreign trade growth, according to Zhang Rong, general manager of the Zhejiang airport logistics development company.