China Eastern to buy 50 Airbus airliners

China Eastern said in an announcement to the Hong Kong stock exchange the aircraft would be delivered in stages from 2012 to 2015 and would expand its capacity by 14.39 per cent, or by 11.24 per cent, including the fleet of its Shanghai Airlines subsidiary.

The airline did not disclose the price of its acquisition but said Airbus had granted it "significant price concessions... which will mainly affect the depreciation of the aircraft in the operation cost of the company."

The announcement marks the latest in a line of large deals by some of the bigger players in China's burgeoning aviation market.

Last week Shandong Airlines said it planned to buy 15 Boeing passenger planes worth up to $1.2 billion, to be delivered between 2014 and 2015.

In November, Air China said it had agreed to buy 20 passenger planes from Airbus in deal worth $4.49 billion. Half the planes would be A330s and the other half were to be A350 series aircraft, the company said.

Also in November, China Southern Airlines said it had agreed to buy 36 planes from Airbus for $3.78 billion.

In September, Hong Kong-based carrier Cathay Pacific said it had confirmed an order for 30 long-range A350 Airbus aircraft with a book price of $7.82 billion the biggest single order in the carrier's history.

China's rapidly expanding economy has seen the country's aviation sector grow at a blistering pace over the last few years, with few analysts seeing any likelihood of a slowdown.

Boeing said in November that it expected China's civil aircraft fleet to more than triple over the next 20 years, with 5,180 planes by 2029 compared with 1,570 last year.

Chinese airlines will need 4,330 new jets valued at $480 billion over the next two decades, compared with global demand of 30,900 units during the period, according to Boeing.