Alibaba begins selling aircraft on its Taobao website

The J160C aircraft manufactured by Australian company Jabiru has received 23 bids so far

Alibaba, China's biggest e-commerce group, has started selling aircraft on its shopping website Taobao.

Six planes are up for sale on the Ebay-style consumer-to-consumer shopping portal.

The cheapest plane on offer, the Jabiru J160C, has received 23 bids so far, the highest being 1m yuan (£103,000; $163,000).

Bidding for the most expensive unit, a helicopter, starts at 16.8m yuan. But it has not received any bids as yet.

There have been no bids for the other four planes on offer as well.

Bidders have to put down a deposit of 50,000 yuan for each plane, except the J160C which needs a deposit of just 2,000 yuan.

The buyers will need to obtain a certificate of airworthiness for their craft from China's Civil Aviation Administration.

China's robust economic growth in recent years has seen the rise of a large number of millionaires in the country.

That has seen the private jet market take off and some aircraft manufacturers have predicted that the country is likely to become one of the biggest markets for the industry in coming years.