Hacis, the cargo terminal operator's logistics arm at Hong Kong International Airport, has extended its air cargo road feeder service into Vietnam, adding the country to a trucking network that feeds freight into and out of the Hong Kong hub by road.

The extension connects Vietnam — a fast-growing manufacturing and electronics export base — to Hacis' existing road feeder operations centred on Hong Kong. Road feeder services move air cargo by truck between secondary origin points and a main hub airport, where freight is consolidated onto long-haul and intercontinental freighter and bellyhold capacity.

For shippers and forwarders in Vietnam, the link offers an alternative to direct freighter departures from Vietnamese airports or transhipment through other regional gateways. For Hong Kong International, one of the world's busiest cargo airports, the move widens the catchment from which the hub can draw export freight and to which it can distribute imports, reinforcing the airport's position against competing Southeast Asian hubs that have been expanding their own cargo operations.

The timing matters for capacity dynamics. Widebody freighter availability remains tight across Asia-Pacific, and bellyhold capacity on regional passenger routes has not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels on every city pair. Road feeder links allow airlines serving Hong Kong to tap demand in markets they do not fly to directly, converting trucking hours into network reach without deploying aircraft.

Vietnam's export sector has driven sustained air freight demand, particularly in electronics, textiles and e-commerce shipments, and manufacturers there have increasingly sought resilient routing options. Trucking freight to Hong Kong gives forwarders access to the dense long-haul cargo schedule operating from the airport, where freighter operators and combination carriers offer connections to North America and Europe.

Hacis operates the road feeder network in conjunction with its cargo terminal operations at Hong Kong International, allowing trucked freight to move through the terminal and onto flights with airport-to-airport handling intact. The model mirrors road feeder services used at other major cargo hubs, where surface legs are booked and tracked under air waybill conditions.

The extension into Vietnam marks a further step in the geographic broadening of the service, which has progressively added origins beyond Hong Kong's immediate hinterland in southern China. Each additional country in the network increases the volume base available to carriers at Hong Kong and deepens the terminal operator's integration with regional supply chains.

How quickly forwarders shift Vietnamese volumes onto the new road link will depend on the relative economics of trucking versus direct air lift from Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, border crossing times, and the schedule reliability of connecting flights out of Hong Kong. With Vietnam's export factories continuing to add air freight demand and long-haul capacity from the territory remaining among the densest in the region, the service positions Hacis to capture a larger share of cross-border trucked freight heading for Hong Kong's cargo aircraft.