AIR CHINA, mainland China's flagship carrier, made a profit of US$62.82m in the first 10 months of last year, the official Xinhua news agency has reported. It said Air China aimed for revenues of US$3.02bn this year, with those for 2002 expected to have reached US$2.8bn. The airline says it will purchase 15 new aircraft this year (2003) in line with a plan to double its fleet size over the next few years. The order will be for a combination of 737s and A319s. China Southwest Airlines and Zhejiang Airlines were recently merged into Air China creating a new aviation giant which will soon seek an overseas stock listing.
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