Hainan Airlines Group has signed an agreement with 999 Group on acquiring the 21.66% stake of Shenzhen Financial Leasing held by the latter.

HAG will be engaged in the aircraft leasing business after taking over the Shenzhen Financial Leasing and become the first national airlines company entering airplane leasing field in China.

Wang Chong, general manager of Shenzhen Financial Leasing, says that the stock transfer will be completed soon.

An experienced expert in the airline industry says that the main clients of HAG will not be the three largest airline companies. Instead, the upcoming Olympics will stimulate the demand of airplane transportation, which will then cause an increase in the demand of airplanes. The privately-owned airline companies are usually limited to buying airplanes by themselves, therefore they will choose to lease aircrafts to enlarge their air fleets. Shenzhen Financial Leasing may mainly target those private airline companies.

Currently, most of China's airline companies rely on leasing to acquire airplanes. Tian Qing, deputy director of the Financial Leasing Professional Committee, China Society of Finance, says that due to the high price of buying aircraft or other equipment for flight, the aircraft leasing market in China has great potential.