US aircraft maker Boeing signed up to US$500 million (RMB3.8 billion) worth of contracts with Chinese suppliers to make commercial aircraft components, including components for its Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental Passenger and Freighter, China Business News reported. The recipients are the China Aviation Industry Corporation I (CAIC-I)-affiliated Xi’an Aircraft Industry Group and Chengdu Aircraft Industrial Group and CAIC-II-affiliated Hafei Aviation Industry Co. Boeing began forming partnership with Chinese aircraft producers in the mid-1970s, and it currently has US$2.5 billion (RMB 19 billion) worth of Chinese supplier contracts.

China Eastern Airlines – the country’s third largest carrier – has received State Administration of State-Owned Assets Commission (SASAC) approval to sell some of its shares to Singapore Airlines, the Shanghai Business Journal reported. Singapore’s national carrier and Temasek Holdings, an investment firm owned by the Singaporean government, will buy a 25% stake in the Shanghai-based carrier. The deal will take at least another two weeks to be finalized since it has to get approval from at least five ministries under the State Council. China Eastern is expected to report a whole-year revenue of US$26.29 million (RMB200 million) for 2007 and to report profits for the first half of this year.

Air New Zealand will run code-sharing flights with Air China from July 1 in an effort to tap the thriving Chinese market ahead of the 2008 Olympics, the Shanghai Business Journal reported. The Kiwi carrier said Air China will code-share on flights between Shanghai and New Zealand’s largest city Auckland, plus some flights connecting New Zealand and its neighbor Australia. The Kiwi carrier will code-share on Air China’s flights between Chinese and Australian cities. Shanghai is currently the only Chinese city connected directly to New Zealand. To keep up with surging demand, Air New Zealand will extend its air services to Shanghai from three to five flights per week starting in October.