Shareholders of Air China have approved the carrier's plan to offer up to US$2.7 billion in a domestic stock listing that would provide the cash for a fleet of new Airbus and Boeing jets.

The proceeds from the stock issue will be used to buy 20 Airbus A330 aircraft, 15 Boeing B787s and 10 Boeing 737s, the Hong Kong and London-listed national flag carrier said in a statement Thursday.

Air China won approval last month from regulators for an initial public offering (IPO) on the Shanghai Stock Exchange to finance the purchase of the aircraft.

The money will also be spent on improving facilities at Air China's Beijing base.

Li Jiaxiang, chairman of Air China, said last month the company expected to pay no more than US$5.68 billion for all of the planes, while the development of the Beijing facility would cost about 600 million yuan (US$74 million).

No date for the IPO was provided but Air China calculates that the nominal value of the new shares will be one yuan, with the exact price to be determined by market conditions at the time of the sale.

Despite the nod from shareholders, any stock sale would have to wait until the government re-initiated public offerings, which have been suspended on the two stock exchanges since April last year as a liquidity-building measure.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2006)