Taobao aircraft auction fails to take off

An aircraft auction launched by the nation's leading online shopping platform, Taobao.com, was a crashing failure - at least on the first two days of bidding.

As of 4 pm on Thursday, 30 hours after the auction started, only eight people had bid for an Australian-made light sport aircraft. The plane was offered to pay 1.05 million yuan - about $245,170 - by the last bidder, and nobody had even made any bids for four jets that are also being offered.

The auction involves five new small aircraft, as well as a used helicopter. Prices for the other items range from 1.05 million yuan to 16.8 million yuan.

As of 3 pm on Friday, 61 users had shown an interest in the 3.53 million yuan second-hand helicopter, according to Taobao.

Anybody can take part in the auction after providing a deposit of 2,000 yuan for the Australian-made aircraft or 50,000 yuan for the four jets. No deposit is required for the helicopter, which has a fixed price, according to Li Feng'an from communications department of Taobao.

The aircraft auction will end at 10 am on Monday.

Taobao is a subsidiary of China's largest e-commerce company, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

The central government has promised to gradually open parts of the country's low-altitude airspace (altitudes below 1,000 meters) for private flights to promote the general aviation sector.