By Francis Markus BBC Shanghai correspondent

A private company in China says it has been given approval by the country's Civil Aviation Authority to buy a domestic airport.

If the purchase goes ahead it would be first time a private firm has been allowed to do so.

All China's airports are currently state-owned, and many are short of capital to upgrade and modernise to cope with growing air traffic.

The entrepreneur Wang Junyao, who heads the Junyao Business Group, has reportedly offered to put about $68m into the airport at Yichang, near the vast Three Gorges dam project.

At the same time it is reported in the Chinese press that the government is drafting new regulations to allow more private capital into China's aviation sector.

Breakthrough?

China's domestic aviation industry may appear to be burgeoning, with air travel becoming affordable to an increasing number of Chinese people.

But many of the country's airports remain starved of the capital they need to upgrade and modernise in face of the growing traffic.

So the announcement by a private company that it has been given approval by the Civil Aviation Authority to buy the airport at Yichang in central China's Hubei province seems to mark a breakthrough.

Provided the deal can be finalised, the Junyao group will be the first private firm to be allowed to buy a Chinese airport.

Entrepreneurial spirit

Yichang is close to the vast Three Gorges dam project, a big tourist attraction, but the company says it's in poor condition and it needs a new management system.

Junyao's founder, the 36-year-old Wang Junyao, is no stranger to the airline industry.

He was the first entrepreneur in the country to start operating private charter flights more than ten years ago and he runs flights to dozens of destinations from the company's base in the eastern city of Wenzhou.

Few Chinese will be surprised that this latest initiative should be coming from such a quarter.

Winjuao has a reputation as China's most entrepreneurial town, with communities of emigrants forming a business network that spans the globe.