Air China buys 20 Airbus planes

• expands capacity 17 pct
  

HONG KONG, June 26 - Air China agreed on Thursday to buy 20 Airbus A330 jets for a nominal $3.821 billion, as the country's largest carrier by market value expands its fleet to keep pace with booming travel.

Air China said in a statement the jets will boost its annual capacity by 16.5 percent -- as measured by available tonne-kilometres -- when compared with capacity in 2007.

Airlines typically get hefty discounts from catalogue prices from airplane manufacturers. Air China did not disclose the discount it won from Airbus.

(Reuters)