URUMQI, July 3 (Xinhua) -- A new international cargo flight route linking Urumqi in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region with Nis, Serbia, was launched on Thursday.

A Boeing 767-300F freighter carrying 52.71 tonnes of cross-border e-commerce goods departed Urumqi for Nis, Serbia's third largest city, marking Xinjiang's second direct air cargo route to Serbia.

Nis is located in southern Serbia, at the center of the Balkan Peninsula, and is a crucial transport hub connecting Eastern and Western Europe.

The route will operate twice weekly, primarily transporting cross-border e-commerce goods and serving markets in Serbia and neighboring nations.

From January to June 2025, Xinjiang operated 26 international cargo routes, handling 47,400 tonnes of international freight -- a sharp increase of 700 percent year on year.

Xinjiang also plans to launch new cargo routes linking Urumqi with Larnaca in Cyprus and Karachi in Pakistan. Such developments are part of the efforts to form an air hub over the Eurasian continent, with the purpose of better facilitating economic and trade exchanges among Belt and Road partner countries. ■