China to Make Fewer Plane Purchases

BEIJING -- China plans to tell its troubled state-owned airlines to delay new aircraft purchases because of a travel slowdown amid economic turmoil, a news report said Friday, a move that could hurt U.S. and European aircraft makers.

Regulators also might put a moratorium on new purchases, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper said, citing Hu Bin, general manager of Xiamen Airlines, a mainland carrier.

A spokeswoman for the Chinese aviation regulator, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said she could not confirm the report. She refused to give her name. ...