Jade Cargo has begun its earlier announced service linking Geneva’s Cointrin international airport with Shenzhen in China’s southern industrial zone, utilising a Boeing B747-400 freighter. The twice-monthly service will be operated by Lufthansa Cargo and the Shenzhen-based Jade Cargo, which is partly owned by the German carrier.

The new service makes Geneva the seventh European city from which Lufthansa Cargo operates a direct service to China, has been opened in response to demand from exporters in western Switzerland and eastern France, according to a statement.

The first cargo to be carried on Thursday’s flight will be machines made by a Swiss company based near Geneva for cutting silicon used in the manufacture of solar panel cells.