China Southern has signed an agreement with the China State Postal Bureau to pay Yn150m for a 49 per cent stake in China Postal Airlines. China Postal is based in Shanghai and operates routes between Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shenyang and Shenzhen. Part of the money will be used to buy passenger and cargo-transferable aircraft that can used by China Postal for evening mail and also leased for daytime passenger flights by China Southern.
China Southern is the largest airline in China and claims to be the country's largest air cargo carrier, with 23 per cent of the total market. It has recently taken delivery of the country's first Boeing 747-400 freighter.