Privately owned Chinese carrier Spring Airlines said it would go ahead with a plan to lease five additional Airbus planes this year, even though some other Chinese airlines were cutting back their expansion plans.

Spring will begin leasing one of the planes in March, increasing its fleet to 12, and four more planes will be added later this year, company spokesman Zhang Lei told Reuters on Feb. 2. He did not name the leasing company.

Falling air traffic demand has pushed many Chinese carriers into deep losses in 2008, forcing some to consider scrapping plane orders.

China Eastern Airlines, one of China's big three carriers, targets zero capacity growth this year and may cancel, delay or sell all new planes to be delivered in 2009, sources have told Reuters. It had been scheduled to take delivery of 29 planes from Boeing and Airbus in 2009, the sources said.

Spring Air will postpone its stock market listing because of the global financial crisis, Zhang said without elaborating. It had planned an overseas initial public offer in 2009 or 2010 to raise at least 1 billion yuan (US$146 million), chairman Wang Zhenghua told Reuters in late 2007.

The airline made a net profit of 21.04 million yuan in 2008, thanks to 20 million yuan in fee rebates that it received from the government, Zhang added.

Photograph: A Spring Airlines' Airbus A320 at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport on May 20, 2007. Photo by CARNOC.com message board member - Tone-Lee.