Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd (Hactl) has picked up two new significant pieces of business in recent days.

Hactl has been appointed to handle a new weekly Boeing 747-8F service for SW Italia and a newly-launched twice-weekly B747F services from Dhaka for Bangladesh’s Bismillah Airlines.

The new SW Italia flight—which routes from Hong Kong to Prague—is for the exclusive use of Sto Express, one of the major Chinese express operators. The aircraft is operating in Sto Express livery, and is thought to be the first regular freighter operation to Europe for any Chinese express carrier.

“We look forward to working with Sto Express on this exciting new project, and are very happy to entrust the vitally important ground handling element of the operation to our long-term service partner Hactl,” said President and CEO of SW Italia, Ignazio Coraci.

“We are delighted to extend our relationship with SW Italia to include this new operation, which clearly signals the growing role of the mainstream airfreight industry in ecommerce logistics,” said Hactl Chief Executive Mark Whitehead.

Bismillah Airlines’ new flight is its first scheduled service to Hong Kong.

Hactl will provide a one-stop-shop service including ramp handling, cargo terminal operations, crew transportation, and air cargo documentation. The flights will be marketed in Hong Kong by general sales agent Smart-Trans.

Inbound cargo to Hong Kong is likely to include fruit, seafood, marine products, and textile products for which Bangladesh is well known. The country is also developing its manufacturing industries, and the new scheduled freighter services operated by Bismillah Airlines will provide an important trade link with the entire Asian region, by utilizing the widespread network of air cargo destinations accessible via Hactl’s 100 other airline customers.

“The Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) Economic Corridor is a component of the Belt and Road initiative,” saiud Whitehead, “and all additional transport links which are introduced to serve it will benefit from the increasing cooperation between the countries it connects.”