SHENZHEN Airlines yesterday signed an agreement with Airbus to purchase 10 A320 planes, worth a combined US$814 million at list price, moving a step closer to achieve its target of forming a 180-aircraft fleet by 2015.

Three of the jets will be delivered in 2012, and the rest in 2013. The carrier, which operates 109 aircraft at present, will introduce another 16 aircraft by the end of next year.

"Shenzhen Air's target is to run more than 180 aircraft and an annual sales revenue of 30 billion yuan (US$4.43 billion) by 2015," said Kong Dong, chairman of Air China, which owns a 51 percent stake in Shenzhen Air.

Operating profit of the Guangdong-based carrier totaled 520 million yuan in the first half of this year, which helped reduce the company's debt ratio by 5 percentage points following Air China's cash injection, Shenzhen Airlines President Feng Gang said.

The carrier lost 864 million yuan last year.

Shenzhen Air carried 8.18 million passengers in the first half of this year, up 17 percent from a year earlier.