SF Express, with its main base in Shenzhen, has been steadily expanding its fleet of aircraft during the past twelve months. Meanwhile, the carrier has become one of China’s leading
courier companies and is even said to be holding the dominant position.
Now, the delivery services company has got the green light to open up a massive new hub in central China.

Wuhan location get the OK from CAAC
A complete new freight airport is planned to be built near the town of Yanji which is located around 70 km east of Wuhan which is the capital of the central Chinese Hubei province (CargoForwarder
Global reported May 6th).
The choice of location is seen to be a wise decision and one which was fully agreed upon by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), who has the last word.
Situated centrally and also not so far from the booming east coast of China, Wuhan has access to most of the so called mainland within less than two hours flying time.
The project is enormous, allowing in the future for the airport to handle up to five million tons of air cargo, thus making it the fourth largest cargo airport in the world.
Some say that the plans for the Yanji hub are mirrored on FedEx’s hub in Atlanta and will enable SF Express to operate throughout China as FedEx does in the USA.
It is further said that SF Express already controls 20 percent of the total Chinese express and domestic cargo market and that the potential is never ending.

SF Airlines / SF Express fleets increasing day by day
SF Express presently has 19 own cargo aircraft and a further 20 on lease.
The company makes it clear that they plan to have 100 own aircraft in service by 2020.
SF Airlines, a SF Express daughter operate 31 aircraft which are made up of two B767-300BCF’s, sixteen B757-200F’s thirteen B737-300/400 series converted freighters.
There are a further ten P-to-F conversions on order by the carrier.
Is it only a matter of time before SF starts looking outside of the Chinese borders to operate freighter services?
South East Asia and the e-commerce boom which continues unabated, seems to be a tempting target.
John Mc Donagh
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