CHINA'S first budget carrier Spring Airlines received a jet yesterday from a financial leasing arm of Bank of Communications, the first deal after the city launched aircraft and shipping leasing services using special purpose vehicles last month.

The aircraft leasing firm bought the A320 plane at US$40 million from Airbus and leased it to Spring Airlines for 10 years. With the latest acquisition, Spring now has 20 aircraft in its fleet.

The financial leasing arms of Bank of Communications and China Merchants Bank on June 27 set up six SPVs in the Shanghai Comprehensive Free Trade Zone to lease aircraft and ships at low risk.

"The first deal is a milestone for the city to build itself into an international shipping and financial center," an official of the trade zone said.

The launch of the six SPVs with a total registered capital of 30 million yuan (US$4.4 million) makes the comprehensive zone the first in the country to operate shipping and aviation services using SPVs. BoCom set up two SPVs for ship and jet leasing while CMB has four SPVs for aircraft leasing. The SPVs registered in the free-trade zone enjoy favorable policies like value-added tax exemption.

The zone comprises three free-trade zones - Waigaoqiao, Yangshan Deep Water Port and Pudong airport.