Quick translation question (hopefully)...

As an item is departing China, you'll often see (eg)

北京航站, 离开交航
⇒ "Beijing air terminal, depart 交航"

...and of course, all the dictionaries I can find have the individual hànzi, but not 交航 as a single word.

航 I presume is "air", as in 航空 ("aviation"), and as best I can tell 交 is generally "to hand over, to exchange, to deliver"...so is this "handed over to airline"? Or something related but different, like "air cargo interchange" or even "air terminal gate"?

Quote from chinapostvolunteer on November 4, 2015, 05:27
交 means "send to ", 航 means " airline " (in case of airmail) or " ocean ship company " (in case of surface mail). "交航" together means the parcel has left China Post warehouse and is no more controlled by China Post.

Oh! Oh! That makes sense! I'd wondered about that, since I'd seen 离开交航 on surface parcels. But 航 can be ship, vessel, or craft of different kinds depending on the compound word...eg 航空, 航海, or even 航天 -- although China Post doesn't use that yet, surely before too long they will 😉

Thank you so much for the explanation; I appreciate it