China Cargo Airlines Brand Guidelines: Shanghai’s 1998 Freighter Line and Its 777Fs

China Eastern and COSCO in Shanghai.

China Cargo Airlines, often shortened to CCA, was established in Shanghai on 30 July 1998 and began flying in October 1998, according to both the English and Chinese Wikipedia articles on the airline. It was set up as a joint venture between China Eastern Airlines and China Ocean Shipping, the shipping group known as COSCO; English Wikipedia gives the original split as 70 per cent and 30 per cent, and calls CCA China’s first all-cargo airline.

The name changed briefly. English Wikipedia says the company adopted the title China Eastern Airlines Cargo for a time and returned to its original name after it became an independent subsidiary in 2004. Its head office is in Changning District, near Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport, and its single hub is Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

The shareholding widened at the end of the decade. Chinese Wikipedia says that in December 2010 China Eastern announced a capital increase in the cargo airline together with COSCO, the Taiwanese carrier EVA Air and Singapore Airlines Cargo. After it was completed, the same article says, China Eastern held 51 per cent, COSCO 17 per cent, and EVA Air and Singapore Airlines Cargo 16 per cent each. English Wikipedia describes the same change. Later reports describe the ownership in different ways: Air Cargo News called CCA a subsidiary of China Eastern Airlines in May 2025 and June 2026, while a January 2026 report in the same paper still gave the original 70–30 joint-venture split.

Three cargo carriers become one.

The airline took its present shape in 2011. Chinese Wikipedia says that on the afternoon of 31 May 2011 a new China Cargo Airlines was launched in Shanghai, reorganised from the original CCA, Shanghai Airlines Cargo and Great Wall Airlines, and that the combined company became the largest cargo airline in mainland China at the time. English Wikipedia says the two smaller airlines were rebranded as China Cargo Airlines progressively.

Alliance membership followed. Chinese Wikipedia says CCA signed an agreement to join the SkyTeam Cargo alliance in June 2012 and became a member on 5 June 2013.

The Boeing 777 freighter is the core of the fleet. Air Cargo News reported on 12 June 2026 that CCA had taken delivery of a newbuild 777F completed at Boeing’s Everett factory in Washington state and flown from Paine Field to Pudong, bringing its total to 20, according to the fleet-tracking site Planespotters. The report said the 19th had arrived in February 2026, that three more were on order, and that the airline acquired its first 777F in 2010, so it has been building the 777F fleet for 16 years.

The same paper’s earlier reports show the pace. In May 2025 Air Cargo News put the 777F fleet at 15, and in January 2026 at 18, both citing Planespotters.

How cargo airlines present themselves.

Cargo airlines address a particular audience: freight forwarders, shippers and airport partners. Much of their identity travels on the aircraft itself. A freighter carries the livery of its parent airline or of its own cargo brand, and the fleet photographs that airlines publish on their websites and in press releases are among the most visible images of the business. In this group, the guides describe those liveries only as dated sources describe them.

Maps and schedules do a large share of the work. Cargo airlines publish network maps, hub information and seasonal timetables, because customers plan around routings and capacity as much as destinations. Nippon Cargo Airlines, for example, posts its summer and winter timetables and its road feeder schedules on its website, while Qatar Airways Cargo announces new freighter routings with their stops and weekly capacity in tonnes.

Product names carry much of the rest. Special cargo is sold under short names that the airlines set out on their own pages and in press releases, covering services for pharmaceuticals, perishables, live animals, couriers and high-value goods, each described in the terms the airline chooses. Qatar Airways Cargo, for instance, names products such as Pharma, Fresh and TechLift. The guides quote these names as the airlines give them and do not compare one service with another.

The working end of a cargo brand is digital. Shipment tracking by air waybill number, online booking portals, fuel surcharge notices and schedule downloads are where customers meet the identity day to day. The guides in this group set out what dated sources say about each airline’s history, ownership, fleet and network, and treat the palettes and typefaces shown here as unofficial interpretations rather than official brand assets.

Budapest, Liège, Paris and Chongqing.

Recent route news has centred on Europe. Air Cargo News reported that CCA opened a route between Shanghai Pudong and Budapest in 2024. On 26 May 2025 Liège Airport in Belgium announced a scheduled CCA service to Hefei, flown three times a week with a Boeing 777 freighter, the paper reported the next day. In November 2025 the airline relaunched its freighter route between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Pudong.

That Paris service began on 20 November 2025, three times a week with a 777F, Air Cargo News reported, citing a China Eastern social media post. The airline said it hoped to carry machinery and apparel to France and chemicals and raw materials on the return leg, with a road feeder operation linking Paris to other European points. The ground handler Worldwide Flight Services took on cargo and ramp handling at Paris, and said its relationship with CCA and China Eastern in the city spanned more than 25 years. The same report said the airline had added four 777Fs during 2025.

In January 2026 it added a second Chinese city on the Hungarian route. Air Cargo News reported that flights between Chongqing Jiangbei and Budapest began on 15 January 2026, three times a week with a 777F, citing Sina Finance and the China Civil Aviation Network, and quoted a freight forwarder saying the route mainly served cross-border e-commerce and local IT products. The same report listed Frankfurt, Amsterdam and London Stansted among the airline’s other European points.

Partnerships have grown alongside the routes. Air Cargo News reported in May 2025 that Saudia Cargo and CCA had signed a memorandum of understanding the month before, aimed at interline agreements between Saudi Arabia and China, and that the Hong Kong-based Tam Group had been appointed CCA’s general sales and service agent in the Philippines in January 2025, after earlier appointments in Malaysia and Vietnam. A wider cooperation agreement between the two airlines followed in June 2025; Saudia Cargo said it aimed to increase cargo flights between Riyadh and Shanghai and to add connections to European destinations.

For a design guide, China Cargo Airlines shows how a freighter carrier inside a larger airline group speaks through hub, route and aircraft-type news rather than a consumer brand. Compare SF Airlines, the Shenzhen courier airline, and Nippon Cargo Airlines, the Narita freighter line. For this guide we use Pudong deep blue, slate and a harbour teal with a grotesque sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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