China Eastern Airlines said that it has ordered 16 Airbus 330 aircraft and that the average basic price of the aircraft in total was around $2.6 billion. It added the planes were due to be delivered from 2011 to 2014.Both Airbus and its US rival Boeing have been working hard to secure orders in China, where demand for planes is set to increase as the country’s economy continues to grow.
Airbus’ latest Chinese order comes a week after the CFM International aero-engines joint venture of French group Safran and its US partner General Electric won a multibillion dollar deal to supply engines for China’s future C919 plane.
Reuters reports China also has ambitions of its own in the aviation sector. In 2008, Beijing merged its own two state aircraft makers, AVIC I and AVIC II, to pool resources for a jet project to help wean itself from reliance on Boeing and Airbus.