China Southern Airlines to spin off cargo business with 747-400Fs and 777-200Fs

China Southern Airlines plans to spin off and list its logistics subsidiary on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE). The airline’s plan for China Southern Air Logistics was confirmed in an announcement on the SSE website on March 29.

In the announcement, China Southern Airlines said the “spin-off still needs to meet a number of conditions before it can be implemented”.

The airline said after the completion of the spin-off, the company’s shareholding structure will not change.

Air Cargo News’ sister publication, FlightGlobal said the airline’s board approved the listing of China Southern Air Logistics on March 28, stating that the move has “commercial reasonableness, necessity and feasibility”.

The Chinese Government’s zero-Covid policy severely impacted flights in and out of the country during the pandemic, and China Southern Airlines suffered record losses in 2022.

The airline reported an operating loss of CNY22.5bn in the year to 31 December 2022, a significant uptick against 2021’s CNY9.9bn loss, said FlightGlobal.

The airline’s board noted that steps were taken to cut flights and reduce costs, but the company’s operations suffered a “relatively significant impact and incurred losses”.

Established in 2018, China Southern Air Logistics provides air cargo logistics services and flights.

China Southern Airlines operates more than 850 passenger and cargo transport aircraft.

Starting from wet-leased freighters, China Southern Cargo now operates a self-owned fleet of two Boeing 747-400Fs and twelve 777-200Fs.

It has established Shanghai and Guangzhou as its “dual-cargo-hubs” and developed a freighter network that covers 10 domestic and international stations.

Plans to list China Southern Air Logistics were first announced at the end of November last year, though the airline said then it had not submitted any official applications.