China Eastern Airlines has agreed the purchase of 16 Airbus A330 aircraft with the European airframer.

The carrier has disclosed the agreement in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

While it has not identified the specific variant, it says that the aircraft will be delivered in stages from 2011 to 2014.

China Eastern has not disclosed an engine supplier but its current A330 fleet is powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700s.

It values the agreement at $2.6 billion based on the 2007 list price. China Eastern is in the process of merging with Shanghai Airlines.

China Eastern A330-300 02
 © Airbus

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news