Chinese air express carrier SF Airlines Co bought two Boeing 747 airplanes worth 320 million yuan ($48.25 million) during an auction on Alibaba's legal auction website sf.taobao.com on Tuesday, marking the first sale of a Boeing 747 during an online auction in China, domestic news site thepaper.cn reported.
The carrier, a cargo airline owned by SF Express, a domestic delivery services company, won the planes after more than 20 rounds of bidding for each. Three Boeing 747s were put up for auction on Monday morning, with starting prices ranging from 123 million yuan to 135 million yuan.
The three airplanes, once owned by Jade Cargo International, the first joint venture cargo airline based in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, were jettisoned when the company filed for bankruptcy in 2013.
Seized by a Shenzhen court, the three aircraft have been offered at six offline auctions without final buyers since October 26, 2015, said the report.
Later shown on the taobao auction platform on September 19 this year, their starting bids stood at 392 million yuan in total, down about 70 percent from the first opening, it noted.
In July, Boeing Shanghai Aviation Services announced a maintenance agreement with SF Airlines for its Boeing Classic 737 and 767-300 freighters, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The carrier now has 40 cargo aircraft with the latest one joining the largest all-cargo fleet in China in August this year.
