It is estimated that the freight volume of ShunFeng Airlines (S.F. Airlines) will exceed 600 thousand tons this year, S.F. Airlines president George Li said on May 24 at a forum, China Business News reported. S.F. Airlines' fleet size is expected to increase from the current 7 cargo aircraft to more than 25 by the year of 2015.

George Li expressed that on the China Civil Aviation Development Forum 2012. Mr. Li is also the vice president of S.F. Express (Group) Co., Ltd., a domestic privately run express giant.

The business of air cargo of airlines including the three major airlines -- Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines -- is not promising right now. Because of slumps in freight demands, it is very difficult for cargo airlines to be profitable. However, S.F. Airlines is optimistic about the prospect of the development of its air freight business, which is mainly related to the rapid increase in the needs from express industry. The air cargo volume of S.F. Airlines reached 450 thousand tons in 2011.

Mr. Li pointed out that prosperity in e-commerce facilitates the development of express industry greatly. The China express industry has been developing at a rate of over 20% for many years. In 2011, in particular, the China express industry achieved a year-on-year growth of 31.9%. The scale of domestic e-commerce market maintained a growth of 46.4% from a year earlier. Mr. Li predicted that the domestic e-commerce will continue developing and increasing at a speed of 35%-40%, which means that the express industry still enjoys a spacious room for rapid development and this will definitely encourage the development of the grand total of air freight.

Mr. Li also disclosed that by the year of 2015, the cargo volume of S.F. Airlines will reach 1.5 million tons occupying a market share of 17% of the domestic air freight and 25% of the grand total of the national air freight. However, it is very hard to achieve this goal without reconfiguring a freight network or cargo airports directing at express delivery.

Right now, the capacities of domestic all-cargo planes are limited. With passenger transport being prioritized, cargo freight is effectively restrained. Therefore, S.F. Airlines seeks to cooperate with more airlines to get more stable freight capability by charting planes or other means.

S.F. Airlines has chartered planes from civil cargo freight airlines Shenzhen Donghai Airlines Co., Ltd. and Yangtze River Express - a subsidiary under Hainan Airlines Group. Meanwhile, S.F. Airlines also begins to negotiate with the three major airlines about their modifying retired passenger planes into air freighters and hopes to cooperate with them by means of chartering planes, etc.

Mr. Li also pointed out that with passenger transport being prioritized currently, it is hoped that Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) shall work out strategic plans regarding freight airports and network like considering about building exclusive airports in areas of booming economies and close to highways. S.F. Airlines also made their positions known to CAAC that it was willing to be involved in the process of investing and constructing air freight network.