China Eastern Orders 20 Airbus Jets

SHANGHAI -- Financially struggling China Eastern Airlines (CEA Quote) plans to buy 20 Airbus A320 jets following an agreement last week with the European aircraft maker.

The purchase will cost about $1.45 billion, based on 2008 catalog prices, Shanghai-based China Eastern said in an announcement late Wednesday to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

China Eastern, one of China's three big state-owned carriers, said it gained what it called "fair and reasonable" price concessions in its negotiations with Airbus.

Meanwhile, Airbus rival Boeing(BA Quote) said Wednesday it received an order of $153 million for two single-aisle planes, its first order coming on the third day of the Paris Air Show. Boeing received the order from MC Aviation Partners, a unit of Japan's Mitsubishi Corp.

Prior to the China Eastern order, Airbus had made about $6.2 billion of sales at the air show, which is well below the order tally in recent years. Boeing shrugged off the Airbus announcements, saying the company doesn't save up orders to announce at air shows.