SF Airlines made deals Tuesday to purchase two out of the three Boeing 747-400 Freighters for sale in the first domestic online auction.

SF Airlines spent 320 million yuan ($48 million) for two freighters to meet its growing business needs.

The freighters were publicly auctioned on Taobao, the shopping platform of China's e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding.

It is the first time Boeing cargo aircraft have been the subject of a Taobao judicial auction.

The three Boeing freighters had been put up for auction offline six times since October 2015 but failed to find buyers. The total initial bidding prices on Taobao were 70 percent less than first bids for the freighters in the earlier offline auctions.

SF Express Service currently owns 40 freighters for its courier services.