China Eastern Airlines, one of the country's top three airlines, said on Tuesday it had signed a contract to buy 30 A320 passenger jets from Airbus.

The airline said it would pay less than the CNY13.9 billion yuan (USD$1.74 billion) list price of the planes. Carriers often receive a significant discount from jet manufacturers which is seldom disclosed.

China agreed last December to buy a total of 150 planes from Airbus and China Eastern's 30-plane contract was part of that agreement.

The 30 planes, scheduled to be delivered between May 2008 and November 2010, will service the domestic market, a China Eastern spokesman said.